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My Little Garden 

AND 

Your Little Garden 





JOSEPHINE ROGERS SIDLE 



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CSEQIICHT DEFOSIC 



OUR LITTLE GARDEN 



MY LITTLE GARDEN 

AND 

YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 



BY 
JOSEPHINE ROGERS SIDLE 




MINNEAPOLIS 
NINETEEN TWENTY-TWO 






Copyright 1922 By 
Josephine Rogers Sidle 



0)Cl.A6o9679 
-^0 I 



THE TORCH PRESS 

CEOAR RAPIOS 

IOWA 



DEDICATION 

I dedicate this book to you, 
little sister, the sweetest flower 
in Nature's garden, and to the 
memory of my beloved mother, 
who must have imbued into 
my soul this wondrous love of 
flowers. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter I 7 

Chapter II — Lawns lO 

Chapter III — Perennials 15 

Chapter IV — Color and Grouping of Pe- 
rennials 47 

Chapter V — Vines and Shrubs .... 52 

Chapter VI — Annuals 60 

Chapter VII — Arrangement of Cut Flowers 77 

Chapter VIII — Bulbs 82 

Chapter IX — Sunshine, Cultivation, and 

Fertilizing 86 

Chapter X — General Floral and Color 

Arrangement 90 

Chapter XI — My Garden 99 

Annltals and Perennials 119 

Garden Pests and Remedies 122 

Cut Worms and Wire Worms 124 



CHAPTER I 

My garden is a place of enchantment 

Shared with the birds, the bees, and the butter- 

flies; 
A place to rest, to dream, and to forget. 

It seems so strange a thing to me, why so 
few people know or feel the restful charm of a 
garden of flowers. At the age of two years 
my greatest happiness was to sit in the middle 
of the largest bed of flowers, and pick any- 
thing my tiny arms could reach. From my 
mother I inherited this perfect love of flowers 
and for the great out-of-door world. She 
must have imbued into my soul this longing 
for, and to be of, nature. My happiest hours 
were spent with her in our garden, with her 
arm around my waist telling me of this flower 
or of that, and together watching the setting 
of the glorious sun as it slowly lost itself be- 



8 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

hind the hill tops that edge the river banks. 
She had hoped to make an Eden of this gar- 
den spot, and we laid our plans with the ex- 
quisite delight of children, and dreamed of 
the happiness that was to be ours, but cruel 
Fate strode in our midst and took her soul to 
Paradise. Her loss to me was so terrible, I 
felt never another flower could I grow, never 
another flower could I love, but my undying 
devotion for her prompted me to try to do 
better things, to try to accomplish what she 
had hoped to do. My knowledge of flower 
lore was so limited I felt lost as to how to 
begin for I knew only with a proper begin- 
ning could I accomplish a perfect end. 

My first step was to engage a capable gar- 
dener, when to my dismay I found his capa- 
bilities lay mostly in handling the spade and 
hoe, but further than that, as to general knowl- 
edge he was as deficient as I was. Then my 
thoughts turned to books, and in searching for 
them and finding so few written for our own 
climatic conditions is what urged me on to 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 9 

produce this little volume. I only hope to 
show the beginner what and how successfully 
to produce a love garden^ one that holds you 
every moment and fills the saddest hours with 
sweet fragrance and lingering thoughts of true 
contentment. 



CHAPTER II 

Lawns 

Our first step is to select only flowers that 
can be successfully grown by amateurs, grown 
with comfort and happiness, not with care and 
worry, tho the production of all things beau- 
tiful requires loving care and patience. 

Of course, we all know the quaint little old- 
fashioned flower bed in the middle of the lawn 
is quite a thing of the past; in order to make 
a perfect landscape we must have a picture in 
a frame as it were, a lawn, a house, and a bor- 
der. I can safely say, all flowers require sun- 
shine; therefore we must follow Mr. Sun for a 
day or two, and see just where he casts his 
beams, for in just those spots must we use our 
greatest efforts. 

The next requisite to beautifying the 
grounds is a well built lawn. First see that 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 1 1 

the soil is well pulverized and a goodly supply 
of black dirt, coarse bone meal and wood ashes 
is raked in, one-half pound to each square yard, 
see that all the little holes and low places are 
well filled, then grade very gently from the 
foundation of your house to the street. I think 
all lawns have a much prettier effect in so 
grading rather than in a perfectly flat surface. 
Supply yourself with a goodly mixture of grass 
seed. I find all reputable seed firms have 
lawn mixtures far superior to any you yourself 
might mix, because they are composed of the 
seeds of such grasses as are best adapted to the 
production of a good sward. Always buy the 
best lawn seed, tho more expensive in the end 
it is the cheapest. The proper time to sow the 
seed is on a still damp day, as any wind will 
carry it where you do not want it. On such a 
day, the seed can be scattered with a greater 
degree of evenness by amateur gardeners. 
Sow your seed from north to south and cross- 
sow it from east to west. In this way you are 
quite sure to miss no part of the ground, and 



12 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

as a general thing it will germinate in four or 
^VG days and in a week's time the soil will 
show a film of green over its entire surface, 
and a month later will be quite hidden by the 
grass, then you can form an opinion of what 
your lawn will be when the sward is well 
established. It will take fully one season to 
thicken up and '^stool out," and no lawn is at its 
best before the second year. 

Do not be in a hurry to use your lawn mow- 
er. I earnestly advise waiting until the grass 
gets to be at least four or five inches tall before 
beginning to clip it. It should be allowed to 
get such a start that mowing off the top would 
not interfere with the root action sufficiently 
to injure it ; later on you can adjust your mower 
to cut lower without any risk to the health of 
the plant, and the result will be a sward that 
looks and feels like velvet. Such a lawn is 
good for years if proper care is taken of it. 
Remember, a half-pound of coarse bone meal 
to each square yard raked in the soil just be- 
fore seeding to my idea is the making of the 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 13 

lawn. Every lawn should be treated to a good 
top dressing of lawn fertilizer in the spring 
and again in August. These two applications 
of fertilizer will keep the grass in good health 
and make it vigorous and luxuriant year after 
year. I much favor sowing all seed in the fall 
of the year if this can be done before freezing, 
as the seed receives the benefit of the early 
spring rains long before seeding could possi- 
bly be done; in this all gardeners do not agree, 
tho my success has come from fall sowing. 

The greatest enemy of a well kept lawn is 
the dandelion. In some manner they find their 
way and deposit their tiny seeds and seemingly 
over night we have a wonderful crop of dan- 
delions. So be ever watchful and destroy the 
first tiny flower that makes its appearance. 
This brings to my mind an incident, of a man 
whose greatest joy was his lawn. On his re- 
turn from two years overseas he found a veri- 
table dandelion garden. Being the father of 
two lovely little girls, six and eight, he told 
the little tots that he would give them five 



14 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

cents a dozen for all the dandelions they would 
pick and to get their tiny friends to help. 
With childish enthusiasm the morning found 
them bright and early surrounded with an 
army of little folks starting on their campaign. 
At night when father returned from business, 
they were waiting with their pails full of dan- 
delions. When asked for their amounts due, 
according to their figures father owed them 
something over two thousand dollars. So be- 
ware of the dandelion, or you may become 
financially embarrassed. 



CHAPTER III 

Perennials 

Next to a perfect lawn come perennials. 
I have spent many years raising and producing 
perennials. No garden can be a true success 
without some of these wonderful plants. First 
must come the making of the perennial bed. 
All perennial beds must be dug deep. I lay 
aside perhaps one and a half feet of earth. In 
the bottom I place old pieces of broken jars, 
some sand, a bit of gravel, and any coarse ma- 
terial for drainage purposes. Then a few 
spades of clay to help hold the moisture and 
over this good rich black dirt and coarse bone 
meal. 

All perennial plants grow down with deep 
feeding roots, consequently hoeing is more 
beneficial than water. Water tends to bring 



1 6 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

the roots to the surface where they soon dry 
out and die. 

If our perennial border is to be along the 
lot line or against the house, I feel that a 
banking of shrubs must come first as a back- 
ground for the flowers. There are a number 
of flowering shrubs very attractive and easily 
grown; first and perhaps the hardiest of all 
is the old reliable purple lilac. To me in 
May when they are in full bloom there are no 
flowers that hold the wonderful fragrance of 
the purple lilacs. They lend themselves won- 
derfully for banking, as you can train them to 
grow either high or spreading, as is your de- 
sire. There are other shrubs of the Syringia 
family, tho I find in the long run the syringias 
grow so tall and branch out at the top so full 
they outgrow their position in the border. I 
prefer the syringias by themselves, bunched in 
some corner where they can hold full sway 
over their own domain. The Bridal Wreath, 
Von Houttei, is perhaps the favorite shrub 
among all classes. This is a shrub that in the 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 17 

latter part of May produces myriads of tiny 
white blossoms in long sprays that cover the 
shrub almost completely. There is nothing 
more saintly pure than a bridal wreath in full 
flower. After selecting your shrubs see that 
they are carefully and deeply planted to insure 
safety in dry seasons. Between the shrubs I 
leave little spaces for clumps of hollyhocks — 
to me the King of Glory. (In my garden last 
year I produced 500 hollyhocks in a single 
mass. The effect was absolutely dazzling.) 

I never make a straight row of hollyhocks 
as is usually seen in the average garden. 
Massed together the effect is much more gor- 
geous, as for artistic effects straight lines and 
I never agree. Next in front of my bridal- 
wreath, or Spirea, with the bunches of holly- 
hocks I place my peonies. I suggest not buy- 
ing fancy stock. My first terrible blow at 
raising peonies was when I selected from a 
local nursery peonies I thought were effective 
and sure to growj averaging what I had ex- 
pected to cost about $17.00. 



1 8 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

After they were delivered to my home and 
the gardener and I had spent most of the day 
planting and cherishing and loving them the 
bill arrived — $90.00 for a dozen peonies, and 
for three years never a bloom rewarded us for 
all our labor and my hard earned money. 
Why? Climatic conditions. After the third 
year they were relegated to the brush pile. 
Peonies are easily grown and require little 
care if properly planted to start with. Never 
allow fresh manure to touch the roots, but 
nourish from the top. Set them deep, but do 
not cover the crown. Peonies do not like 
changes. They are like the old maid w^ho for 
fifteen years refused to re-paper her bedroom 
because of changing the style of the wall pa- 
per. I have known of a famous bed of peonies 
in one location for fifty years. With fertiliz- 
ing and care they are things of wondrous beau- 
ty. So plant your peonies to remain in one 
location. 

In front of my peonies I place the lark- 
spurs, so wonderful in colors of blue. Lark- 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 19 

spurs grow to a height of from two to three 
feet, the Bella Donna being the favorite for 
all-summer bloom. After their flowers are 
spent I cut them down, leaving the foliage of 
the peony to cover their unsightly roots. 

Good sized bunches of white phlox add to 
all perennial beds, and with clumps of iris in 
the front we have a perennial border which 
will produce flowers from May through to 
September. 

For all gardens, perennial plants are the 
standard. By perennial is meant plants last- 
ing from year to year, plants whose leaves and 
stalks die down but whose roots continue to 
live. Perennials must be made over, as it 
w^ere, every three or four years, depending up- 
on the plant. I am giving the names of peren- 
nial plants that are the easiest and simplest to 
grow, but are a joy to every garden. Take the 
wonderful iris family. These come in every 
shade of blue, yellow, pink, and white. The 
German iris is the flower par excellence for 
our American gardens and has gained great 



20 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

favoritism over other flowers. No other so 
staunchly braves the eccentricities of our cli- 
mate, giving us unblemished foliage and flaw- 
less petals. The temptation is to fill our gar- 
dens with this sturdy, beautiful flower, to en- 
joy to the full the resplendent period of its 
festival, and to rest content for the remainder 
of the next season in the gracious memory of 
those June days. We are, moreover, being 
encouraged in this course, for from out of the 
green w^orkshops of the world issues a be- 
wildering procession of new irises, in the most 
enchanting furbishings and all the wondrous 
colors that can be imagined. But the German 
iris is after all our greatest friend. It is the 
easiest and most satisfactory to grow. These 
are a bulbous plant and I find by planting 
them in August they are nearly always sure to 
flower the following June. They will grow 
in almost any garden soil and require little 
attention. The German iris loves to bask in 
the sun and it is quite characteristic for the 
roots to lie almost on top of the ground, scarce- 
ly covered at all or at least very lightly so. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 21 

In my iris bed early in June of last year I 
counted one thousand flowers in one morning. 
It was a sight not to be forgotten. I am not 
mentioning the Japanese nor Siberian iris. 
Tho the Siberian is much easier of culture 
than the Japanese, still I find difficulty in both 
for an amateur. After raising two dozen of 
the Japanese plants from seeds for two years 
I was rewarded with flowers only one season ; 
consequently I find them most perplexing and 
disappointing. 

Iris grows and multiplies so rapidly I find 
it necessary to divide the plants every three 
years. Select that part of the garden you in- 
tend using for the new plants, have it cultivat- 
ed, plenty of good black dirt and coarse bone 
meal. About August 15 is the proper time 
to divide them. Do not move your plants 
from the ground, but take your spade and cut 
them straight through the middle, removing 
only one-half of the plant from the ground. 
Lift this half out and place it immediately in 
the new bed already prepared. 

I never allow any perennial plants or shrubs 



22 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

to lie around in the wind or sun any longer 
than is absolutely necessary. Old pieces of 
burlap or bags should be thrown over the roots 
if they are to be planted any distance from the 
old bed. I might say I almost never lose a 
perennial plant from transplanting, owing to 
the great care I exercise in doing the work. 

After the division of the plants is made see 
that the earth is well packed around the re- 
maining roots in the old bed where they will 
continue to thrive and flower as luxuriantly as 
before. The easy culture of the iris makes it 
an attraction in itself. It is a free bloomer, 
and for cutting it cannot be surpassed. Buds 
w^ill come into full bloom after being placed 
in water. I cannot too strongly urge the cul- 
tivation of the iris, either in single plants or in 
large quantities. 




STREAM BY WHICH FORGET-ME-NOTS ARE GROWING 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 23 

''Of all the flowers that deck the field 
Or grace the garden of the heart, 

Though others richer perfume yield 
The sweetest is forget-me-not/' 

Fortunate is the flower lover whose garden 
is blessed with a brook, for here in countless 
numbers the birds may bathe and drink, and 
on the sloping margins the wild flowers find 
their home. Such a brook have L It is fed 
from springs half a mile distant, and is as clear 
and cold as a mountain stream. It gurgles 
and bounds and jumps, turns and twists over 
its stony bed until it forms itself into a glorious 
waterfall where it splashes and falls some six- 
ty-five feet into a gorge of emerald green, 
thence on into the river below. 

On either side of this stream for a distance 
of some thirty feet I have placed my iris. In 
front of the iris on the very bank of the stream 
forget-me-nots are growing. The dear little 
old-fashioned flower we so seldom see in any 
of our gardens now-a-days is not the forced 
forget-me-not we find at the florist, that has a 
beauty but no fragrance; but it is the wild 



24 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

riotous little flower that sows itself, first up on 
the banks of the stream, then down away into 
the water's edge. This flower seeds and re- 
seeds itself until it has formed a veritable sheet 
of dazzling blue. It is the one spot de re- 
sistance in my garden. I am always suggest- 
ing to my friends to cultivate this flower, if 
only in small quantities. It is an erroneous 
idea that forget-me-nots will not grow unless 
near the water. This I have proven conclu- 
sively, for up on the high ground in the full 
sun I have raised this same little flower in pro- 
fusion, but in this location it does not seed 
itself and is quite apt to dry out unless well 
watered. Over this bed in early spring I turn 
a bushel of leaf mold, which seems about all 
it requires. A package of seed will cost you 
but fifteen cents, and oh, the glory of this one 
package — if you love dainty little flowers try 
the forget-me-not. Remember to plant it 
where it will get the sun, either in the morning 
or afternoon, for it will droop its dainty head 
and die if left without the warmth of the sun 
to cheer it into life. In buying your seed, ask 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 25 

for the extra large flower. This seems to be 
of a more robust nature and withstands the dry 
weather better than the smaller species. Late 
May and all through June it is a solid mass of 
bloom. About July 10, we cut off the old 
flowers and buds so that late in August and 
September it comes into flower again, tho not 
as profusely as in May and June. Up on the 
hillside in partial shade grow the lilies of the 
valley. Have you seen a dainty vase filled 
with lilies of the valley and a spray of forget- 
me-nots, and have you forgotten it? No, 
if you are a flower lover I am quite sure you 
never could. My enthusiasm when it comes 
to lilies of the valley is quite beyond my con- 
trol. Just why, I cannot explain; there is 
something about them so w^hite, so dainty, and 
oh, so wondrous sweet. 

I plant them both on the north and south 
side of my home in partial shade. Some gar- 
deners will tell you they need no sun. I have 
never found it so. They require deep, rich 
loam, and little care, but year after year they 
will surprise you by constant blooming. Be 



26 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

good to them, cultivate them occasionally and 
you will be well repaid for your efforts. They 
flower the last of May and through June and 
are white in color. They send up long dainty 
slender stalks with what appear to look like 
tiny white bells on either side of the stalk, 
growing some six to eight inches high. The 
leaf is straight and stalky and the flowers grow 
from the center of the plant. 

And now comes June, the month of roses 
and peonies, the beginning of the larkspurs, 
and even the copper red gaillardia and yellow 
coreopsis commence to awaken to their duties. 

Said Pasture Rose, the Bumble Bee 
Quite often leaves her babes with me, 
I love to hold them next my heart, 
Fm sorry when it's time to part, 

— Gordon 

Roses play a large part in an ideal garden. 
Indeed a garden of roses is a fairy land, a 
fairy land where one may sit and dream sweet 
dreams, weave fancies, and recall tender mem- 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 27 

ories. We are all better for a little dreaming, 
and a rose garden filled with the soft sweet 
perfume off a full blown rose is the one spot 
in which to linger, to dream, and to forget, it 
brings to you a contentment borne of peace 
and perfect sympathy with your surroundings. 
Roses are so pure, so soft, so sweet, yet when 
I think of the hours, the days, the weeks I 
have spent on rose culture, and at the end of it 
all I was a sad failure! 

But the longing for a garden rose pursued 
me; so I visited a local nursery and told the 
nurseryman my rose woes. 

I was so ambitious to grow only one, just the 
plain old fashioned yellow garden rose, the 
kind that grew in the garden at my home when 
I was a small child and always stood by the 
side of the yellow flowering currant, where I 
gathered them the last days of school, and the 
fragrance of that rose; I close my eyes and 
drift back to the days of my childhood and 
eternal peace. 

After explaining my difficulties to the nurs- 



28 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

eryman and of my desire for just a yellow 
rose, he laughed and said: "Why that is a 
joke, they grow without half trying, no cover- 
ing, no trouble at all." After his wonderfully 
assuring words of perfect success, I purchased 
two of his jokes, as it were, and rushed home 
fearing they would die before I got them in 
the ground. 

I selected my location, wonderfully bright 
sunny spots, sun all day long, perfect soil, an 
abundance of fertilizer, every requisite known 
to rose culture. 

We planted the roses. All summer it was 
my special duty to tend them. I religiously 
did my work. The bushes thrived and grew. 
Fall came, I covered the roots with fertilizer. 
I burlaped the bushes and bid them a fond 
farewell until early spring. All winter, while 
traveling in a warmer clime, my yellow rose 
was fresh in my memory. In fact, I am sure 
I persuaded the family to go North unusually 
early that year, not daring to give my reason 
why. Spring came, daily I visited my rose 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 29 

bush, peeping in through the burlap here and 
there and wondering and waiting. Finally, 
we removed the covering. Ah, the terror of 
that moment. Yes, they were dead. Of 
course they were dead. Now do you under- 
stand why I am a failure at rose culture? 
There is still one rose that clings, one rose that 
will always find a spot in my heart. It is the 
tiny pink bud known as the Sweetheart Rose. 
Ah — the memories of that rose! 

'^Thou art not my first love, 

I had loved before we met 
And the memory of those happy days 

Still lingers with me yet. 
But thou, thou art my last love 

The sweetest and the best. 
My heart but shed its outer leaves 

To give thee all the rest/^ 

I know of many roses I might suggest for 
a rose garden. Other people raise them and 
in a most nonchalant manner tell me of their 
easy culture. I shut my eyes and hear myself 



30 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

saying: ''Fairy tales." I will leave the cul- 
ture of roses to some less skeptical person and 
go on to the care and raising of peonies. 

I have previously told you of my first ex- 
perience in raising peonies. Perhaps I have 
a bit of stubbornness about me, presumably so 
from the close companionship of ten years 
with my old gardener who hailed from the 
land of the Midnight Sun, which explains the 
tale. 

Tho my first venture with peonies was sucJi 
a crushing failure, it never for one moment 
dampened my ardor, and I continued to grow 
peonies until I now^ feel I am quite expert. 

Peonies should be in every garden, however 
large or small. They are the very easiest of 
culture, and if given a good, rich garden soil 
and left undisturbed they are good for many 
years. The wonderful pink peony that so 
closely resembles the rose has a fragrance al- 
most equal to it. Other colors, red and white, 
are fully as attractive tho they have no frag- 
rance. The peony blooms in June, requires 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 31 

plenty of sun, and an occasional stirring up 
with the hoe so as to keep the earth well loos- 
ened around the plant, but not so near as to 
disturb the roots. 

Be sure and include them in your list of 
perennials. They are not expensive; and in 
buying select good sized plants, as it will take 
three years to form perfect flowers from young 
plants. Do not divide your plants often. 
Peonies object to being moved. 

Blooming almost at the same time as the 
peony is the red lily commonly called the 
^^Candlestick Lily." It grows about fifteen inch- 
es high, and the flowers form at the top of a 
single stem and probably average from four 
to five inches across. They are of a bright red 
color and most effective. I have seen as many 
as five flowers on a single stalk. I am ex- 
ceedingly fond of this hardy plant. It re- 
quires little attention. It thrives in a coarse 
soil of clay and sand and some black loam. 
In planting the bulbs, place a handful of good 
clean dry sand around the bulbs before cover- 



32 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

ing them on account of drainage. Any water 
standing on lily bulbs is ruinous to the plant. 
In partial shade they are at their best. Try 
them in your border. They add a bit of 
bright color very pleasing to the eye. The 
pure white Madonna lily is easily grown, and 
it is so seldom we see it in the average garden. 
The fragrance is delightful. It flowers in 
June and July. Cultivation is the same as the 
Red lily. 

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up 
And slips into the bosom of the lake; 
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip 
Into my bosom, and be lost in me. 

— Tennyson, The Princess 

Few hardy plants have grown more rapidly 
in importance during recent years than the 
gaillardia. Indeed, they have almost risen to 
the rank of florist flowers; at all events, there 
are now named varieties available. They are 
easily raised from seed, and bloom the second 
year. The lovely copper reds, together with 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 33 

the almost bright lemon colors, are perhaps 
the most popular flowers for cutting in my 
garden. They are not a successful border 
flower as the habit of the plant is of too ramb- 
ling a nature. They bloom almost continu- 
ously from July through to September, and 
are likely to have flowers when every other 
occupant of the garden has given up blooming. 
Among the loveliest and most useful of yel- 
low flowers are the perennial coreopsis. 
Their color is very pure and fine and runs the 
scale from mild lemon yellow color to almost 
deep orange. The flowering period extends 
from the latter part of June through to about 
August 15, if the flowers are well picked so 
as not to allow seed pods to form. Few plants 
grow with such hearty good will in all sorts 
of positions, while none known to me are so 
free from disabilities of any kind, or the attack 
of insects. There are yellow flowers a-plenty 
for all the gardening seasons, but I find none 
more pleasing both for borders or single plants 
than this same yellow coreopsis. For bou- 



34 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

quets this dainty little flower cannot be sur- 
passed. Used with the blue corn flowers and 
a bit of rue for table decoration, it is most 
fascinating. 

The Shasta daisy, coming into flower about 
July 7, is another hardy July flower. Plant 
it where it has an abundance of room, for it 
spreads, seemingly overnight. Full sun and 
a little cultivation is all that is necessary. In 
size and color, it resembles the June mar- 
guerite, only it is of a coarser quality. 

We have in Sweet William, the old fash- 
ioned garden favorite, a new plant — the Scar- 
let Beauty. This new plant is a very dark 
red with blackish stems. It makes a stunning 
border for early blooming. Sweet Williams 
I think are best treated as biennials, the young 
plants started in a nursery bed, set in the gar- 
den in the fall, and pulled up after the first 
flowering as the seeds are so easily raised and 
the second flowering is a poor effort at its best. 

What a chaos of beauty there is in a flower 
garden upon a July morning! Standing in 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 35 

the midst of the garden, one experiences a sort 
of breathlessness of soul and sends forth little 
subconscious pleas to the Powers for more 
capacity to enjoy the bounty of this glowing, 
exuberant month — for this is the month of the 
hollyhock, the worst flirt out. One never 
knows what to expect of it, except that it is 
always bright and smiling. It is a stately co- 
quette, pretty and wilful. It casts its seed in 
the most undesirable places and flourishes its 
coarse green leaves from the most impossible 
locations. With all its wilful mannerisms 
it is the glorious favorite of my entire garden. 
When all my hollyhocks are in full flower 
my impulse is to jump up and down and clap 
my hands — they are so wickedly alluring. I 
find them easy to raise. Seeds sown in June 
will transplant in early spring the following 
year and be in full flower by July 15. Give 
the hollyhocks deep, rich soil with a bit of 
sand, but never allow them to be planted 
where water can stand on them through the 
winter. They rot and die. I lost three hun- 
dred young plants in one winter on account 



36 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

of bad drainage. I rarely, or never transplant 
young hollyhocks in the fall. My success has 
always been in early spring transplanting. 
The single hollyhock, which is an annual (tho 
there is also a single perennial) will flower 
the first year. The hollyhock is at its best 
when forming bold clumps near the back of 
an herbaceous border. Here the plants may 
be put a yard apart in clumps of three or 
more. Do not plant hollyhocks where they 
will be shut in by spreading clumps of large 
herbaceous plants in full growth; for when 
the hollyhocks are shut in, the bottom leaves 
soon begin to lose their color, and once decay 
starts in it will soon destroy the plant. It 
will be found that the catalogs make cheap 
offers of seedlings, single and double, and 
these well grown will do good service. Hol- 
lyhocks are seldom true to their seeds. After 
you have carefully selected and saved the seeds 
from the most promising double blossoms and 
sowed them in fear and trembling — after you 
have watched and protected them for a year 
— they will calmly and unblushingly display 




HOLLYHOCKS IN FULL BLOOM 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 37 

a single-petaled bloom. Of all the beautiful, 
tantalizing coquettes, the double hollyhock is 
queen. 

In one familiar garden let me grow 
Amid the sweetness of the things I love. 
Here for me, are all my joys, my loves. 
Transplant me not, lest spite of warmer soil 

and sunnier sky 
In my great loneliness I pine and die. 

How well I remember a sad, sad day in 
July when I dropped my doll on the stone 
pavement. The fright of that terrible mo- 
ment when I saw my beautiful doll, crushed 
and broken at my feet, brought forth a scream 
from my husky little lungs. It had its effect, 
for the entire family were immediately on the 
scene. After being assured by my darling 
mother that the doll's head could be mended, 
but with skepticism in my heart, I slowly stole 
away and found myself in the midst of the 
friendly larkspur bed. Here I threw myself 
down upon the ground and in my childish way 



38 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

sobbed my poor little aching heart out into the 
ears of these stately flowers. Larkspurs were 
to me like wonderful fairies, who had the 
power to transform bad into good; and, sad of 
heart, I fell asleep. I dreamed of my beau- 
tiful doll, of its poor little broken neck, and 
in my sleep I sobbed aloud. My nurse maid 
wakened me, and in her arms carried me back 
to the nursery, and there in my little willow 
rocking chair sat my doll, all whole and per- 
fect again. Of course, these wonderful lark- 
spur fairies had made my doll all new. July 
is the month of the larkspur. This noble plant 
is one of the greatest assets of the herbaceous 
border. It sends up its tall columns of blue 
in thousands of gardens, assertive, compelling, 
triumphant. It comes on with a rush; it suc- 
ceeds the peony and precedes the phlox. In 
color, it is a radiant blue — blue in all shades. 
It requires a deep, rich soil and some clay, 
and must be manured generously. 

Larkspurs do not spread to any great extent, 
but when planted in deep, rich soil you should 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 39 

plant them about a yard apart. Divide them 
about every three years, preferably in the 
spring. Those who have to look closely at the 
cost of their plants should consider the ad- 
visability of raising a stock from seeds. The 
mixed seeds yield beautiful varieties, light 
and dark, single and double. The seeds can 
be sown in drills of prepared soil in open 
ground in early summer, and the plants set out 
in the following autumn or the early summer 
of the next year where they are to remain. 
Some will flower the first season. It may be 
added that small plants of the beautiful and 
popular variety, known as the Bella-donna, 
one of the best larkspurs ever raised, is found 
for sale by our market gardeners in good, 
strong, sturdy plants at a very low price. I 
have purchased many of these small plants and 
have always found them satisfactory. 

The perennial larkspur rarely suffers from 
enemies, unless it be from slugs in spring. 
Free dustings of lime at night will greatly 
reduce this pest. Blue is not a common color 



40 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

in the garden, still less so among tall, strong 
plants. Consequently, I find the larkspur one 
of greatest charm. Its wonderful shadings of 
light and dark and even lavender blue is truly 
a glorious picture. There is something par- 
ticularly appealing about a blue flower. "This 
seems always to have been the case for there is 
hardly a flower of this hue but has won for it- 
self several intimate and affectionate pet 
names, showing the closeness of its life, wheth- 
er in the garden or the open, with the lives of 
flower-loving humanity." Today there is a 
craze for blue borders and even entire blue 
gardens. 

You seldom see larkspurs poorly placed. 
They seem to lend themselves so gracefully to 
every situation, and yet, even with these de- 
lightful flowers, one must strive for effective 
arrangement. 

Planting back of, or among, my larkspurs, 
I use the anchusa. It may be said the anchusa 
has taken the eye of the gardening public and 
bids fair to be as popular as the phlox or del- 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 41 

phinium. This is not surprising, for though 
we are puzzled by its capricious biennial-pe- 
rennial tricks, the anchusa faces our frigid 
climate with supreme complaisance for which 
alone we owe it a debt of gratitude. The 
Dropmore variety is perhaps the most popu- 
lar. A small root planted in the spring may 
by August 15th produce a plant with strong 
stem three or four feet high, all clothed with 
flowers of a rich gentian blue. An old plant 
may come into bloom in June, and still be in 
flower in September. It is one of the very 
finest of herbaceous plants. It will thrive in 
almost any soil and in a dry sunny spot. It 
grows in a small bushy shape. Its foliage is 
undeniably coarse, and has a laxness of car- 
riage, with a tendency to flop on its neighbors ; 
but there can be no fault found with the tints 
in which it decks itself. 

August is the month of the phlox. This 
great and noble plant plays an important part 
in the herbaceous border. The phlox is the 



42 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

indisputable queen of late summer. Its vigor- 
ous, immense panicles of brilliant flowers, and 
its long period of beauty, combine to render 
it supreme in its season. The colors com- 
prise a long and beautiful range — there are 
pure white, pale pink, rose, salmon, orange, 
scarlet, lilac, lavender, purple, and violet. In 
good soil the flower heads are of immense 
proportions, and what is more, they remain 
fresh and lovely for many weeks. The phloxes 
are among the hardiest denizens of the garden. 
No extreme of cold seems to affect them, and 
they will thrive in almost any soil. The up- 
right and compact habit of the phlox is one 
of its strongest assets. It will thrive in a 
heavy damp soil, or in a common garden soil. 
A light sandy soil seems to be its only enemy. 
Owners of large and small gardens alike 
should grow phloxes. There is no flower in 
the garden that produces a more stunning 
effect than an immense bed of perennial phlox. 
I grow them most successfully in a partially 
shaded glen where they seem to retain their 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 43 

colors longer than on the higher ground. A 
hedge of perennial phlox in full flower in the 
middle of August is a marvelous climax, in 
August's robust symphony. 

Planting may be done in autumn or in 
spring. Frequent division is good, and there 
is no reason why this should not be done in 
autumn. 

The phlox has such inherent vigor that it 
may be propagated with ease — by division 
or by cuttings in spring. Seedlings may flow- 
er the year after the seeds are sown. There 
are early growing varieties coming into bloom 
as early as the latter part of June. Miss 
Lingard perhaps is the favorite — being a 
beautiful pure white, hardy and strong and 
never disappointing. In considering the 
question of varieties, it is worth while to 
choose a few early bloomers, as well as late, 
thereby securing a long succession of flowers. 
No other flower gives such vivid breaks of 
color in proportion to the room that the plants 
occupy. Their habit renders them most suit- 



44 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

able for grouping. Plants may be set two feet 
apart without suffering from overcrowding. 
They will give brilliant floral beauty for many 
weeks. 

The tiger lily is, next to the phlox, the most 
important plant in the late August garden. 
The peculiar orange brown colors of the tiger 
lily cannot be trusted to stand amiably in the 
vicinity of any of the innumerable pink 
phloxes, tho with some of the sharp scarlet 
sorts and a few of the coolest lavenders, it does 
well enough. The only effective way to plant 
tiger lilies is in hugh masses, nearby some pale 
flowering phlox, or even by themselves. The 
tiger lily grows like any other plant under 
ordinary garden conditions. It seeds itself 
prolifically. 

What is a prettier picture than the stately 
yellow golden glow nodding its fluffy blossom 
in the August sunlight? I love golden glow. 
Masses banked against a white frame cottage, 
with dainty pink and white phloxes at their 
base is as pretty a picture as one may care to 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 45 

see. It is so easily grown and takes such ex- 
cellent care of itself and produces such won- 
derful results, one could scarcely pass it by. 
In August the sunflowers all thrive and are at 
their best. I use sunflowers for cutting, and 
in tall brass vases they are very stunning with 
bunches of wild purple asters by their side; 
and for a week by changing the water they will 
continue fresh and sweet. One more August 
and September perennial that is quite the 
best of them all is the boltonia. This fuzzy 
little flower which exactly resembles the daisy, 
grows to six and sometimes eight feet high, 
and forms huge clumps of flowers. In the 
shrubbery bed, well to the front, it is at its 
best. It comes in both white and pink and is 
in flower from late August until frost. 

The acquilegia, or columbine, is the dainti- 
est of them all ; in fact, almost too delicate for 
the perennial borders unless on the outside 
edge. The new columbine, that is, the long 
stemmed flowers that are so much in favor 
now, throw their flower spikes sometimes a 



46 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

yard high. They bloom early, but do not last 
long. Beautiful as the columbine is, it is not 
one of the best plants for color grouping, but 
in a bed by itself is of much interest. The best 
of columbines have large flowers with long 
spurs. They come in wonderful colorings — 
lavenders, pinks, yellow, pure white, and pur- 
ple. They seed easily and soon grow to flow- 
ering size. 



CHAPTER IV 

Color and Grouping of Perennials 

Color — glowing, brilliant, and inspiring — 
marks the modern flower garden, in which the 
best hardy perennials are grown liberally and 
arranged skilfully. 

Perennials form pictures of remarkable 
beauty when used with judgment, and artistic 
people delight in working out charming ef- 
fects with them. Those who would realize 
in full the joys of flower gardening should 
make themselves familiar with the best peren- 
nials. The dominating thought of the flower 
lover must be how to make a flower garden; 
to that end we must consider all plants. In 
selecting my list of perennials, I have named 
only those which are the easiest of culture, and 
which will bring color to your garden each 
month of the summer. 



48 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

The iris, peony, and lily for May and June, 
the larkspurs and hollyhocks for July and the 
wonderful phlox family for August and Sep- 
tember. These flowers alone afford deep in- 
terest and delight to thousands, and let us en- 
thusiastically acknowledge their power, but 
not to the extent of neglecting other beautiful 
flowers. The wise gardener will refuse to 
become absorbed in any one plant, however 
beautiful. 

In the garden of today hardy herbaceous 
perennial plants play so great a part that we 
almost speak of them as the backbone of the 
garden. 

Annuals, and even shrubs, are less important 
than this great class, and to the bulk of flower 
lovers, a summer garden without perennials 
would be of little interest. Flower-lovers 
strive, and rightly so, to get harmonious 
groups of color in their gardens. In these 
days, color grouping with herbaceous peren- 
nials is one of the features of flower gardening 
and by practice one finds that he gets the best 
results by restricting himself to a few. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 49 

The plants should not be crowded. In large 
beds there may be groups of three or more of 
each kind instead of single plants. 

The routine of culture keeps the flower lov- 
er who devotes himself to hardy perennials in 
the open air, which brings health and happi- 
ness to the gardener. 

There is a short season in the spring in 
which to uncover your plants, hoeing and rak- 
ing around the roots to keep the soil loose, thus 
preparing for early rains. In autumn the old 
growth is cleared away and bulbs are planted; 
staking of the plants is done in summer. This 
is a great advantage for the amateur whose 
time is not his own. 

The owner of a large garden should go in 
for bold herbaceous borders in front of shrub- 
bery, along margins of lawns, by the sides of 
drives and walks, and in front of hedges. 

The owner of a small garden may have beds 
and borders along his dividing lines or fences, 
and along his principal paths. 

The cost of plants varies, to a considerable 
extent, with the age of the varieties chosen ; but 



50 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

good plants of all the principal kinds are avail- 
able at low rates. 

The standard variety may be capable of pro- 
ducing exactly the same effect in the garden 
as a novelty. 

From a purely garden point of view, her- 
baceous plants are not expensive. There is 
no system of flower gardening that can be car- 
ried out so economically as the culture of 
hardy perennials. This is an important fact 
that the flower lover must keep in mind if 
economy is his master. 

The best way of buying for a beginner is to 
get collections w^hich every dealer in hardy 
plants offers at special rates. At the end of a 
year, or certainly two years, if the culture has 
been good and the season wet, these plants can 
be multiplied by dividing them, and the col- 
lection thus enlarged at no extra expense. 

The area of an herbaceous border depends 
to some extent on the size of the garden. The 
small garden can have its borders five or six 
feet wide, and one can get an enormous amount 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 51 

of pleasure out of it. These borders should 
be made in the fall, as the spring work is often 
hampered by heavy rains lasting well into the 
planting time. The florist is very glad to do 
business in the fall, and will supply liberal 
clumps to his early customers, therefore, buy 
them at this time and do autumn planting 
when there is plenty of time to do it well. 
Plant your clumps twelve to eighteen inches 
apart, with three to four plants to a clump, 
thus insuring bold masses of color, and allow- 
ing good distancing for cultivation. 

Let me once more refer to the use of peren- 
nials for the purpose of emphasizing my good 
opinion of their many merits. They have a 
dignity not possessed by the annuals; they are 
rich in color effects, they are easily grown, 
their value is becoming more fully understood 
each year, and the amateur gardener makes a 
serious mistake if he refuses to avail himself 
of their assistance in making the home grounds 
attractive. 



CHAPTER V 

Vines and Shrubs 

My great desire was to have a vine-covered 
fence as an enclosure for my summer home. 
With this idea in mind, I immediately set out 
to produce it. I purchased a six-foot heavy 
wire fencing; this I had set on a 400-foot lot 
line, being the only level line surrounding my 
home. I had a deep trench two feet deep dug 
along the fence. This I filled with a bit of 
sand, rotted manure, and rich black dirt. The 
Virginia creeper, perhaps the hardiest vine 
we have, grows in quantities on the river bank 
below us. My gardener and I spent many 
days collecting these young vines and planting 
them one foot apart along this fence. The 
task finally completed, we reveled in the 
thought of its promised beauty. The vines 
made a marvelous growth, far beyond our 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 53 

wildest hope, for the first summer. In the 
fall we threw a banking of old dry leaves over 
the roots, which is not at all necessary even in 
our frigid climate. But the vines were such 
enthusiastic little climbers that I was anxious 
to give them every care and protection. In 
the spring, we nourished and cultivated them 
with great zest, so that at the end of the second 
summer, my vine-covered fence was a reality 
and I was floating on the crest of a silver cloud. 
We closed our summer home early that fall 
and moved into town. 

Two weeks later I had occasion to go to the 
country, as usual, for forgotten necessities. 
On entering the driveway, my eye rested on a 
long black row of smoldering ashes. Just how 
I made my exit from my motor, I do not re- 
member, though I believe, I took door glass 
and all with me. My home is situated at the 
entrance of the park system, and every year 
the park gardeners burn the old leaves and 
grasses. It happened that the fire got beyond 
their control, and the flames leaped across the 



54 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

street into my vine-covered fence, burning 
every vine to the ground. I have always 
tried to forget just what I said. However, the 
following spring we replaced our vines, and 
the fall found them struggling to reach the top 
of the fence. At just this time we were in- 
formed that the survey of our lot on this one 
particular northwest corner was from one to 
two feet off the correct line, and the city had 
advised us to move our fence from one to two 
feet in. After numerous controversies, we 
agreed to abide by their decision and reset 
our fence in the early spring. 

We came north later than usual that year, 
and on my arrival at my country home I 
found that the city, in the hope of doing me a 
favor, had already moved my fence, pulled 
up my vines, trampled the roots and entirely 
destroyed every vestige of any ambitious little 
verdure that might have pushed itself through 
the earth in the early spring. 

I sat down in dejection and soliloquy. Just 
why had fate played a part in the beautifying 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 55 

of that fence? After many an hour of serious 
thought, my final decision was to bank it with 
shrubs. 

In this I was persuaded by my faithful old 
gardener to use spirea Von Houttei. The long 
slender sprays of this spirea, with their tiny 
white blossoms draping to the ground when in 
full flower, are so full of grace and gracious 
sweetness. In front of them I mixed enorm- 
ous clumps of all colors of hollyhocks, peonies, 
foxglove, delphiniums, and phloxes (Miss 
Lingard — pure white, commences to flower 
in July), old pink, lavender and purple; and 
at one end an enormous bed of pure yellow 
coreopsis, in front of which I placed the long 
stemmed columbine — masses of them, in pink, 
lavender, and creamy yellow. It is an herba- 
ceous border, quite worthy of my greatest ef- 
forts. Do you know that I placed between 
my shrubs young trees of the very common 
Norwegian poplar, which, by the way, came 
very nearly causing a break in the entire fam- 
ily? However, I bought and planted the pop- 



56 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

lar trees. About this time I was forced to 
allow my gardener to take an entire day off 
in order to control his temper. ^'Mrs." was 
going to ruin her grounds and take all the 
moisture from the plants, caused by the heavy 
roots of the trees. In this he was quite right; 
however, this being the north line, and having 
all of the sun in front, I considered the trees 
a good wind break from the cold north winds, 
and with much nourishment in the line of good 
fertilizers and plenty of cultivation, I was 
quite satisfied I was not making a mistake. I 
prune my trees round at the top, and never 
allow them to grow coarse and ungainly. I 
made no mistake. The dainty little leaves of 
the poplars are like hundreds of silver- 
winged fairies, always dancing in the sun- 
shine, never still. I love this tree. It is awake 
to the duties of life, never shirking, never fail- 
ing you in time of need. 

And now after all my trials and disappoint- 
ments with vine covered fences I am still an 
enthusiastic proclaimer of their value. I am 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 57 

listing below the hardy vines, all easy of cul- 
ture and from which you may expect good re- 
sults: 

Dutchman's Pipe, Trumpet Vine, Wild 
White Clematis, Wild Grape, Virginia Creep- 
er, and Engleman Vine. 

The hardy shrubs which are the background 
of all good borders, or are used individually 
against our houses or in corners of our lawns, 
are as indispensable as our best perennials for 
making true and fascinating effects. The 
most popular are: 

Flowering Almond Pink, flowering in April 
and May. 

Lilac or Syringa varieties, flowering in 
May. 

Mock Orange or Philadelphus, flowering 
in June. 

Weigelia Pink blooms in June. 

Rosa Rugosa blooms in June. 

Spirea Von Houttei blooms in June. 

Japanese Snowball blooms in June — no dis- 
sease. 



58 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

Hydrangias bloom in August. 

The mock orange is the most beautiful of all 
shrubs. In June it is a mass of waxy white 
flowers with the sweetness and perfume of the 
orange blossoms. If only one shrub can be 
purchased, buy this and put it in the broad 
sunlight and watch results. 

The rosa rugosa has a dark pink rose, both 
single and double, rather coarse foliage, but 
attractive in coloring, and grows from four to 
five feet in height. 

Japanese snowball is far preferable to the 
old fashioned snowball, as it is free from dis- 
ease and its period of flowering usually con- 
tinues through June and July. 

Hydrangias, both high bush and low bush, 
are very showy shrubs. They stand very se- 
vere trimming. All of the flowers are formed 
on new growth and the more severely pruned 
the larger the panicles. I cut my hydrangias 
back very closely late in the fall and again 
early in the spring as I feel too severe pruning 
in the fall is apt to take too much nourishment 




VINE-CCVERED FENCE AT ENTRANCE TO MY GARDEN 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 59 

from the shrub. The tree hydrangia is attrac- 
tive as a single shrub standing alone and prop- 
erly placed either on the lawn at the entrance 
of the drive or in the garden. The flowers 
may be picked and dried and will last through 
the winter. 

The flowering almond is perhaps one of the 
most attractive of all shrubs. It grows to a 
height of five or six feet, and late in April and 
early May it covers itself with the very daint- 
iest of pink, ball-like flowers long before the 
leaves are out. Perhaps because it is almost 
the first shrub to bloom is why it has become 
such a favorite. All shrubs should be careful- 
ly planted in good deep soil, plenty of fertiliz- 
er and good care for the first two years, after 
which time they are quite apt to care for them- 
selves but should be well cultivated at least 
twice during the season and fertilized in the 
fall or in the spring. 



CHAPTER VI 

Annuals 

^^ Little gold bud in a bronze gold vase 
With your green leaves drooping over, 

Half hiding the lines of your pretty face, 
Are you dreaming of your lover?'* 

Your lover s a bee in a velvet robe 

A careless and gay young rover. 
Fll open the window and let him in 

This wanton gay young lover, 

July finds mid-summer floral loveliness at 
its height. The carnival of flowers is cele- 
brated by the arrival of the annuals in bloom; 
though they cannot in any way compete with 
perennials, still they fill the gardens and bor- 
ders with color and fragrance for many weeks 
to come. 

The beauty of annual flowers is the ease and 
rapidity with which the seed can be grown, 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 6i 

and the cheapness and simplicity of their cul- 
ture commend them to flower-lovers. 

July is the Queen month for annuals. June's 
later blossoms linger to bloom in the July 
garden, perfumes that belong to July com- 
mingle and follow the winds, even through 
open windows, coming as fragrant messengers 
from old time garden heliotrope, clove pinks, 
dainty little sweet alyssum and a belated yel- 
low rose. 

"It is the bumble-bees' season of revelry 
when thousands of them hover amid the blos- 
soms in a grand droning chorus and sip from 
perfumed chalices." The gardener's reward 
is sweet indeed when midsummer smiles upon 
a garden over-flowing with brightest bloom, 
for then and there he finds a spot that makes 
the world more beautiful. 

There is a feeling of well earned rest, for 
July has few demands upon a gardener's time. 
One loves to linger among the flowers and 
scent the perfume of those loved best. Each 
flower retains a memory of some past day, some 



62 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

with happiness filled, some with sadness 
chilled. All combine to make one's garden 
spot a place of rest for soul and mind. 

The dainty little annuals, with their bright 
snappy colors, lend a cheerfulness to any gar- 
den, though their lives are short one could not 
do without them. We need bright sunshine 
in our lives; we need bright sunshine in our 
gardens; and therefore, for such efifects we 
may depend upon our annuals. 

^'There is a class of plants in the garden to- 
ward which one feels a peculiar tendernes, they 
are the butterflies of the flower world, careless, 
gay, full of whimsical charm, and without 
their fluttering life the garden would be bereft 
indeed." There is room for many of these 
flowers of grace even in small gardens, for 
they add a bit of witchery to the garden spot. 
One of these is the dainty little California 
poppy. It is fit to be brought into the garden 
and shine among the best; it seems pleased to 
come, for it seeds itself about most graciously 
and scatters its flowers with a freedom of 
ownership. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 63 

My garden was aglow with this golden yel- 
low flower. It was my first effort at flower 
raising; so happy was I at my phenomenal 
success that to celebrate my tiny sister's birth- 
day I decided on a yellow poppy dinner. I 
gathered all the poppies my garden possessed 
and used them in dainty vases with sprays of 
larkspurs and meadow rue. The combination 
to me was quite the daintiest and prettiest I 
might select. I placed them on my table in 
positions I thought most effective. At the 
dinner hour my bubble had burst; all the little 
golden blossoms had folded their leaves and 
were sound asleep, nestling close to the pro- 
tecting larkspurs. 

The Yellow Poppy sleeps so tight 

Throughout the peaceful summer night 

But when sunbeams frolic by its side 
It opens its eyes so wide, wide, wide. 

The poppy to me is the most transparent 
and delicate of all the blossoms of the garden. 
It is sad they so soon drop their silken petals, 



64 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

for in borders or in the garden there is no 
flower that would be lovelier in masses. The 
entrancing shades and tints and exquisitely 
poised grace of the great poppy flower, sway- 
ing upon its delicate slender stem, is worthy 
of an artist's brush. 

The Shirley poppies, perhaps the most pop- 
ular, are of such delightful shades of pink. 
They run from the faintest blush to the stun- 
ning rose-scarlet, their blossoms swinging on 
their slender stems, so frail, seem to be ^'ever 
balancing to keep from tipping over." 

The annual Delphinium Blue Butterfly 
should not be overlooked. Sown in the spring 
it will flower the same summer. It is an ob- 
ject of great beauty with its bright blue flow- 
ers. 

The Calliopas gives us some pretty flowers 
of slender growth, running from bright yellow 
to a red brown, and flowering continuously 
until frost. 

The Candytufts have been greatly improved. 
The large white variety should be grown, 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 65 

whatever else is omitted; the spikes of bloom 
are almost as large as the hyacinth, very showy 
and attractive. 

The Cosmos, running from white to pink, 
and almost a blue lavender, has grown rapid- 
ly in favor during the past few years. They 
bloom on long stems late in the summer, and 
for cutting flowers are unexcelled. 

The Cornflowers, oh! the lovely, blue fairy- 
like cornflowers! They bring to my memory 
a friend of mine who declared he fell in love 
with his wife because she wore a wreath of 
cornflowers on her hat. I agree with this 
man thoroughly. What is more fascinating, 
sweeter, prettier than a lovely girl in a summer 
frock and a wreath of cornflowers on her hat? 
I am not in sympathy with the man who re- 
fused to have them in his garden because they 
were Germany's national flower. 

Sow them by all means in your garden, if 
not for yourself, for the bumble bees. If you 
pick them the bees will go with you through 
your garden. 



66 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

In olden times maidens tested the faithful- 
ness of their lovers by saying rhymes as they 
pulled the petals from these flowers just as 
they do with the daisies now. 

^^Now gentle flower I pray thee tell 

Ifi my lover loves me and loves me well; 

So may the fall of the morning dew 

Keep the sun from fading thy tender blue, 

Now I number the leaves for my lot, 

He loves not, he loves me, he loves me not, 

He loves me. Yes/ Thou last leaf, yes! 

I'll pluck thee not for the last sweet guess/' 

Love-in-the-mist is grown for late blooms. 
Sown in April, it flowers in August and Sep- 
tember. It makes dense bushes of a fuzzy 
foliage in which the flower nestles. It is of a 
fine dark blue and very attractive. 

Petunias are double, single, fragrant, and 
easily raised. The dainty single pink one, 
known as Rosy Morn, is the most attractive. 
Used in masses nothing can surpass their use- 
fulness for color, fragrance, and effect. I mass 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 67 

four hundred to five hundred plants each year 
in a south exposure, by July they are a solid 
bloom of pink. The soil should not be over 
rich, in fact, almost a poor soil gives best re- 
sults. They bloom long after the first frost. 
Petunias sewn in hotbeds or in boxes in the 
house in February flower freely in July. 

Portulaca or Sun Rose is a dear little border 
plant, it thrives in hot dry locations, spreads 
and runs along the borders showing its varied 
colors only when the sunbeams fall upon it. 

Stocks are always popular with their large, 
dense spikes of delicious fragrance. They 
thrive best raised under glass and set out as 
soon as weather permits. They come both in 
single and double flowers though the single 
flower has no beauty. There is a new species 
called the ^'Carmen." The flower is stunning 
— rather a heavy pink in color, and its rich 
fragrance and lasting qualities make it a prime 
favorite with flower-lovers. 

Sweet peas of course have a tremendous fol- 
lowing. Personally, I cannot raise them. 



68 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

There is a something about the soil in my gar- 
den that will not produce sweet peas success- 
fully, nor am I alone in this difficulty. I be- 
lieve sweet peas require a something in the 
soil that is not found in all gardens. The suc- 
cessful producer of sweet peas makes it a study 
by itself, and the markets are filled with the 
most gorgeous of blossoms selling at a trifling. 
I should of course advise all true garden lov- 
ers to grow them. They must be sown in deep 
trenches in full sun and never allowed to dry 
out. To keep the plants in beauty a long time 
regular gathering must be practiced. Water 
and liquid manure should be frequently used 
to insure bright healthy flowers. 

The Sweet Sultans should not be overlooked ; 
they may be sown in the ground in early spring 
and thinned out to a foot apart. They come 
in lilac, pink, rose, lavender, and purple. 

The white form of Gypsophila elegans 
makes an excellent annual. It is a spreading 
grower. Allow this plant plenty of space, it 
is a tiny white branching flower w^onderful for 
bouquets. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 69 

Golden yellow annuals are many — lemon 
yellow and burnt orange zinnias, and oh! the 
lovely marigolds. 

^'Yellow Marigold this bright and cheerful 

thing 
Makes glad the days we are living in. 
It sprinkles gold stars one by one 
That look like bits chipped from the sun/' 

For stately effects, use should be made of 
the many lovely gladioli, they are so bright 
and graceful and exhibit such wonderful rose 
and copper, white, yellow, and red shades. 

Of Mignonette we now have fine strains both 
in giant and dwarf varieties. One of the 
sweetest is Golden Queen, which grows six 
inches high. 

The delicate odor of Mignonette 

The ghost of a dead and gone bouquet 

Is all that tells her story; yet, 

Could she think of a sweeter way? 



70 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

But whether she came as a sweet perfume, 
Or whether a spirit in stole of white, 

I feel as I pass from the darkened room. 
She has been with my soul to-night, 

— Bret HarTE, Romance of Newport 

Nasturtiums, both dwarf, and the large 
climbing varieties are easily the standard of 
the garden. They thrive in most any soil and 
come in both light and dark shades. I have 
raised them from a silvery cream color down 
to the richest shades of copper reds. They 
bloom from June to frost and I have often 
found stray little flowers poking up their bril- 
liant heads after Jack Frost has taken all their 
foliage. 

Nicotianas (tobacco plant) is sometimes 
of perennial duration. The Nicotiana affinis 
is the well known pure white tobacco plant 
with wonderful fragrance. I raise this in 
large quanities. They grow two feet high and 
open their flowers soon after the sun goes 
down. In twilight they look like so many 
pure white stars. I sometimes feel they are 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 71 

fastened on their slender stems so that the 
humble things of earth, which couldn't look 
as high as heaven, could see the stars below. 

The Salpiglosis, is one of the most interest- 
ing, distinct, and graceful annuals, with large 
bell-shaped flowers in shaded pinks, creams, 
and lavenders. The flowers are distinctly 
veined, which makes them especially and sin- 
gularly effective. They should be thinned 
out to eighteen inches apart and are consid- 
ered almost a half hardy annual. 

Verbenas must be sown in the house under 
glass to insure flowers early the first season. 
They may be seeded in small boxes and trans- 
planted to the ground when the weather is 
warm and no danger of frost. Though a tre- 
mendously hardy plant they are a bit difficult 
to start but they self sow occasionally with con- 
siderable success the second year. They come 
in all colors. There is a new very hardy tall 
growing verbena called the ''Venosa." It 
comes in dark purple and thrives well in half 
shade. Planted in large quantities and bor- 



72 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

dered by white sweet alyssum it makes a stun- 
ning effect for the herbaceous border. 

The old fashioned balsams I find to be of 
great value in August for transplanting into 
barren spots of the border. Whole plants in 
full flower can, with care, be transplanted 
with ease and successfully so by freely water- 
ing and shading from the sun for a day or two 
and they continue to thrive and bloom as lux- 
uriantly as before. Pink and lavender colors 
are perhaps the most attractive. 

Pansies can be raised from seed, though I 
advise buying the plants at any local market. 
They can be had at almost any time at not 
more than twenty cents a dozen and are always 
found hardy and productive. 

^'The dear little pansies are lifting their heads 

All purple, and blue and gold; 
They're covering with beauty the garden beds 

And hiding from sight the dead mould/' 

Snapdragons are to be had in the most fas- 
cinating shades of pink, white, cream, yellow. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 73 

and red, and are raised every year from seeds 
very quickly and cheaply. This flower comes 
in various types — dwarf, intermediate, and 
tall. The seeds may be bought in separate 
colors and sown in masses of one color, mak- 
ing a brilliant display. 

The aster lover finds almost an embarrassing 
supply of beautiful colorings awaiting him 
when he comes to the raising of this late au- 
tumn flower. The seeds are sown early in 
open ground, or you can buy the plants from 
your local nursery or market place and put 
out after all danger of frost is passed. A sift- 
ing of wood ashes closely around the plants 
will help in part to destroy the tiny insect that 
is almost sure to attack this lovely flower. 
Allow asters plenty of water and keep them 
well picked, for in so doing you greatly pro- 
long the flowering period. 

Pages have been written about the cultiva- 
tion of the ever popular dahlia. I know a 
man who plants his dahlia roots late in May 
in soil so rich that he says they cannot help but 



74 MY LITTLE GARDEOSF 

grow and produce wonderful flowers, both in 
color and size. They bloom freely in August 
all through the golden autumn until heavy 
frost nips them down. He tells me if he sees 
his dahlias fading he immediately fertilizes 
them in tremendous quantities and they almost 
at once show the effect of this nourishment. 
Other producers have told me they plant their 
roots in almost a solid wet clay with marvelous 
results. Personally, I do not raise them as I 
devote almost my entire garden to perennials 
and a very few easily cared for annuals. 

Sweet alyssum is a most satisfactory white, 
very fragrant little flower. It grows perhaps 
five or six inches high, and is used for edgings 
of walks or borders, flowers profusely from 
June to August — again late in September. 
The "Little Gem" is perhaps most used, 
though the large variety is fully as successful. 
Dimorphotheca amantiaca is a yellow South 
African daisy, a lovely annual easily raised in 
sunny, rather sheltered locations; it blooms 
profusely all summer and has a marvelous 
yellow and orange coloring. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 75 

Dianthus pinks come in varied colorings; 
they are sweet, attractive, and easily grown. 
They are an old fashioned flower but ever pop- 
ular in a garden. 

There are a few annual vines growing 
quickly and most satisfactorily if one has a 
few bare spots needing immediate decoration. 
These vines live but one summer: 

Cobaea scandens — flower very indifferent- 
ly in August. 

Crawling nasturtium — flower all summer. 

Wild cucumber — flowers in August. 

Japanese hop — most satisfactory of them 
all, is a wonderful climber, has a thick and 
thrifty foliage, is most attractive and self sows 
in great quantities. 

This short list of annuals shows that in this 
class, the flower lover has a considerable choice 
of beautiful material to choose from. I lay 
out a certain section which I use as a picking 
garden; into this go most of my annuals, for 
this class of flowers, unless steadily and prop- 
erly picked, soon die out, but when well cared 
for, watered systematically, and well culti- 



76 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

vated, they will produce flowers through the 
summer well into the early fall. 

Just a word about the seeding of annuals. I 
truly believe more flowers and plants are lost 
by careless seeding than in most any other way. 
The soil must be well cultivated and fertilized 
and raked down to as fine a powdered condi- 
tion as possible before your seeds are planted. 
Small seeds like poppies, petunias, in fact all 
tiny seeds should be carefully thrown upon the 
top of the soil and firmly pressed down with a 
flat smooth board, then gently watered with 
a fine sprinkling can. Never use a garden hose 
on newly seeded beds nor on young plants as 
they are easily washed out and permanently 
lost. Larger seeds may be sown in small 
drills or trenches. Do not treat flower seeds 
as you would coarse vegetable seeds. Keep 
your weeds out and with plenty of sunshine 
you can scarcely fail to produce bright and 
beautiful flowers. The annuals are a delight- 
ful class of flowers and cannot be recommend- 
ed too highly. 



CHAPTER VII 

Arrangement of Cut Flowers 

A few trifling suggestions as to the arrange- 
ment of cut flowers for home decoration. 

How often one sees dozens of gorgeous 
roses massed together and literally jammed 
into a vase or bowl too small for even half the 
amount. Few people realize the exquisite 
beauty of a single rose. Were I to choose the 
one from the other I should choose such a rose 
placed in a dainty vase for simple beauty and 
loveliness. 

Take the garden annual, or perennial, yel- 
low coreopsis, placed in a small individual 
silver or glass vase with four or five blue corn- 
flowers and a spray of meadow rue. A small 
number of these vases placed on the average 
size dining table is much more effective than 
the single center bouquet. 

White shasta daisies with a bit of rue and 



78 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

two or three tall slender spikes of scarlet sal- 
via in these same individual vases is another 
charming table decoration. 

In arranging bouquets the use of fewer 
flowers, more green, and plenty of white pro- 
duce much better effect, as the green and white 
have a tendency to throw out the colorings of 
the flowers. 

A large brass bowl filled with the yellow 
California poppy, edged with rue, is most 
attractive, but remember the poppy grows 
weary after four o'clock and folds its little 
flowers to rest until the sunbeams kiss it into 
life. 

Sprays of larkspur with pink snapdragons 
and soft lavender blue cosmos, a yellow nas- 
turtium, and a spray of rue with a bit of white 
feverfew makes a Dresden effect quite entranc- 
ing. 

For bold effects in screened porches or large 
hall entrances use tall brass floor vases filled 
with small tender sprouts found at the bottom 
of the black oak tree. Their green leaves are 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 79 

edged with just a bit of red, and with these use 
orange and red June lilies and a long stiff 
spike of delphinium. 

Young sumac branches make a delightful 
background for tall stocky phloxes in all col- 
orings. 

Two large canna plants cut the entire length 
of the plant, with the brilliant coloring of 
their wonderful flowers, placed in tall brass 
porch vases, wqth the long stems of white bol- 
tonia, in late September is wonderfully at- 
tractive. 

Big bowls of pink and yellow zinnias mixed 
with mignonette or candytuft are always good. 

Hollyhock stalks cut to the ground if not too 
high and placed in tall floor vases are marvel- 
ous. 

I am a great lover of the dainty little 
meadow rue. It grows in almost any shaded 
woods and is easily transplanted into a shady 
nook of your garden to live and to live. It 
seems to live on forever. I have transplanted 
dozens of such roots and much prefer it to the 



8o MY LITTLE GARDEN 

different ferns, as it is almost as lacy as the 
maidenhair fern and for mixing with dainty 
flowers for table decoration it has no equal. 

Single and double hollyhock blossoms 
picked off their stocks and placed around ices 
and ice cream and used as salad decoration are 
the prettiest and most effective of almost any 
flower. Dainty rose-buds with a single spray 
of leaves across an ice cream brick, or on the 
top of a highly frosted pie, is truly decorative. 

Big masses of copper yellow gaillardia in 
dark brown baskets are harmonious to a de- 
gree, the copper yellow of the flowers in true 
contrast to the dark brown of the basket, is 
most satisfactory. 

Gypsophilia or baby's breath with blue for- 
get-me-nots is like a breath of sunshine. 

Bowls or vases of pink snapdragons with 
just a touch of yellow or blue enhances the 
beauty of the snapdragon. 

All my annual flowers have their season in 
my kitchen. There is nothing more satisfac- 
tory for food and table decoration than these 
dear dainty little butterfly flowers. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 8i 

One could go on forever with the marvelous 
colorings nature has given us. It seems with 
so much wonderful material we should know 
no such word as failure! Dainty effects with 
dainty flowers, and bold masses with stocky 
flowers. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Bulbs 

^^Ifs rather dark in the earth to-day 
Said one little bulb to his brother 
But I thought that I felt a sunbeam ray 
We must strive and grow 'til we find the way. 

And they nestled close to each other. 
There they struggled and toiled by day and 

by night 
'Til two little snow-drops in green and white 
Rose out of the darkness and into the light 
And softly kissed one another.'' 

— Unknown 

Oh! the happiness of early spring! The 
rough March winds have died to gentle 
breezes that softly caress the swelling 
buds and early bursting blossoms. The early 
spring days awaken a restless longing to work 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 83 

in the moist black soil almost before the frost 
is out of the ground. I smell the smoke of 
burning leaves from someone's bonfire. Oh! 
the cool of an April evening is the very breath 
of spring incarnate. The bluebirds and robins 
are singing and twittering their love songs to 
each other, and fussily hopping from limb to 
bough, selecting a love spot for their nesting 
place. Back on the hillside where twilight is 
falling the pink and green buds are waiting to 
expand with the dawn of the sunshine. All 
our weariness is lost in the joy of a bright 
spring morning followed by a tender caprici- 
ous day with clouds and sunshine and occasion- 
al raindrops. Out of doors a few snowdrops 
and early tulips and daffodils are making a 
brave display. The spring bulbs are brilliant 
and sparkling, and when they are in full bloom 
a warm glow pervades the garden. April 
brings the early daffodils. May and early June 
are rich with tulips. For two months there 
is bright and cheerful bloom where, without 
the bulbs, there would be few flowers to 



84 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

brighten our gardens. The tulip is unques- 
tionably the greatest of all garden bulbs, not 
merely because of its brilliancy, though that is 
great, but because a selection can be made 
which will bring flowers for six weeks at least. 
The early single and double tulips will be in 
full beauty early in May, then later come the 
Darwin tulips with their lovely tall stems and 
larger flowers, which will last far into June. 

The daffodils will also prove their value. 
The flower-lover with limited means may re- 
strict himself to cheap but good forms. There 
is much comment made as to the advisability 
of allowing bulbs to remain in the ground 
through the summer months. This has been 
and is successfully done every year, especially 
with daffodils, allowing them to remain in 
spots not used for other flowers. The bulbs 
may be placed in the ground in October and 
left there. Tulips are also successfully left 
from year to year, but the space in a small gar- 
den is so limited and cultivation so necessary 
to our perennial and annual class which must 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 85 

occupy the same borders or beds used by the 
tulips, that it is hardly practical to allow them 
to remain. Better take the bulbs up after they 
have thoroughly dried out and place them in 
cool, dark rooms until early fall. 

Daffodils may be planted among grasses 
and successfully left year after year, as mow- 
ing over the plants after the drying out period 
does not seem to damage them. Daffodils are 
cheery bright little yellow stars shooting sky- 
ward, almost before the snow has left us, 
one can scarcely help loving them, for their 
ambition alone. Bulbs are successfully raised 
if one has the time to devote to them. 



CHAPTER IX 

Sunshine, Cultivation, and Fertilizing 

Sunshine, cultivation, and fertilizing are the 
three most necessary requisites in successful 
gardens. Without them flowers will refuse to 
grow, and seeds will dry out and die. All 
good garden lovers will see first that the soil 
is properly nourished ; by that it must be made 
sweet by the scattering of small quantities of 
fresh slacked lime over the top in early spring, 
then a goodly supply of decayed barnyard 
manure or the manufactured bone meal spaded 
in. The ground must be well raked and re- 
fined, all small stones or coarse materials, liv- 
ing roots of trees, all these must be carefully 
removed so as to leave a good clean bed with 
a depth of at least eighteen inches to allow 
the roots of the plant to become well nour- 
ished. When this is successfully accomplished 
then the soil is ready for the plants. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 87 

Small annual seeds and young plants must 
necessarily be watered, and one must continue 
to do so, and not at any time must they be al- 
lowed to dry out, rather go without water from 
the start then to commence and discontinue. 
All annual plants will produce much lovelier 
bloom when systematically and conscientious- 
ly watered. 

Weeding must be done as weeds spread so 
rapidly they soon overgrow your garden and 
you are hopelessly lost. 

Cultivation for perennial plants is far more 
necessary than water. The ground must be 
kept stirred frequently, not allowing it to dry 
and become a hard crusty surface. In case of 
extremely dry weather place the garden hose 
on the perennial bed or border and allow it to 
run through the day by moving it occasionally; 
the entire bed will receive a good and complete 
soaking, which will mean more to the plants 
and shrubs than a surface watering every day. 

All perennial plants have deep, feeding 
roots, and their nature is to grow down for 



88 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

their nourishment, but with light watering, 
the roots have a tendency to come to the top 
which means undernourished roots and under- 
nourished plants. I sincerely believe this 
method of caring for perennial plants insures 
an abundance of growth and successful flow- 
ering. 

The last and perhaps the most necessary 
requisite is the warmth of the sunshine. My 
entire garden was for years handicapped for 
the want of the life-giving sunshine. I strug- 
gled along season after season with apparently 
little success, when a dear old friend of mine 
after hearing my complaints remarked, "Well, 
my little lady, flowers w^ant sunshine; that tree 
must go, this tree must go. You know you 
can't grow trees and flowers on the same spot." 
So I followed his advice and lo! and behold! a 
true garden of loveliness burst forth, which 
was a sure proof that flowers, like little chil- 
dren, must have the bright and beautiful sun- 
beams for their playmates. 

There are some few plants that thrive best 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 89 

in partial shade, but the list is so limited 'tis 
scarcely necessary to mention them. So when 
you start your little garden always keep fresh 
in your memory cultivation, fertilizing, and 
sunshine. 



CHAPTER X 

General Floral and Color Arrangement 

There is no occupation known to me that is 
so absorbing as the distributing and arranging 
of flowers in a garden, with a view to creating 
beautiful pictures. The flower-lover who at- 
tempts it feels he is playing the part of a true 
artist. He is doing with living things that 
which a painter does with oils. The enjoy- 
ment of color is, in the garden as elsewhere, 
entirely a matter of individual feeling. The 
flower-lover has such a sense of freedom in 
expressing himself exactly as he, personally, 
feels. One may set out to form striking blocks 
of color, while another may turn to wistful 
violets and tender blues. In all he is his own 
master to work out effects most pleasing to 
himself. The strongest colors may be grouped 
together to produce great richness of effect, if 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 91 

there be some intermediate tone or tones to 
draw them together. Color can make or mar 
a beautiful picture garden. There should be 
some color in every month from May to Octo- 
ber but the task of arranging a large border so 
that all the plants shall be in harmony with 
one another is a difficult problem and must be 
handled with thought and care. A garden 
planted for color effects may be very beautiful 
or it may be an ugly conglomeration of foliage, 
with tangled masses of flowers. 

When a small border or garden is to be 
planted with specially chosen things, the color 
grouping may be done with individual plants 
rather than large clumps as space in a small 
garden is always limited. 

I was diligently working one morning when 
a dear old friend of mine came to the fence 
and said, "Won't you please come over and 
give me a few suggestions?" Poor dear soul, 
he wore an air of absolute dejection. I dropped 
my hoe and followed him across the street into 
his garden beyond. Here my gaze met the 



92 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

most brilliantly gorgeous mass of scarlet salvia 
I think I have ever seen in any one individual 
grouping. The tall slender stocks raising 
their scarlet heads up into the sunshine were 
just giggling themselves into a bursting, flut- 
tering, flame-like loveliness. Immediately 
juxtaposed was the proud stately phlox stand- 
ing supreme in its exquisite freshness, dozens 
of them, pushing forth their buds into the most 
dazzling magenta coloring. I held up my 
hands and exclaimed, ^^Oh, what a fight!" The 
pathetic appeal in his dear old face I shall 
never forget. What could we do? 

The season being too far advanced for trans- 
planting, there was no flower in the garden 
that could be brought forth to share with us 
our misery or to help in any way to alleviate 
the situation. 

The strong reds being the colors most diffi- 
cult to handle, there was but one alternative — 
namely, that the stately phlox in all its pristine 
loveliness should go; each and every stalk 
must be cut to the ground. What a disap- 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 93 

pointment to my dear old friend! He had 
spent his best efforts the entire summer to 
make this the show spot of his garden. What 
a sorrow! His hopes, his house of dreams, 
his sacrifice! 

The phlox was later relegated to another 
part of the garden and masses of white put in 
its place, but before another flowering season 
had rolled around my dear old silver haired 
friend was laid to rest, and now I am won- 
dering if in his resting place he still has flow- 
ers and sunshine — the two great passions of 
his life. 

My feeling in the matter of flower coloring 
is that none is bad if given a happy association. 
White used in broad masses has dignity and a 
serene beauty. Massing the golden yellow 
coreopsis with a lavish border of white sweet 
alyssum, the giant variety, is pleasingly at- 
tractive. Perhaps the most pretentious bed 
of blue I have ever seen was a very large oval 
bed built slightly higher toward the center 



94 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

and filled with masses of the very bluest for- 
get-me-nots and encircled with a two-foot bor- 
der of white June marguerites. The green 
lawn, like the softest velvet, came to the edge 
of the marguerites. This was truly a garden 
picture. 

A coloring perhaps a bit frenchy and odd 
for the average garden, but to me so soft and 
restful, is the old fragrant garden heliotrope 
massed in front of the belladonna larkspur. 
The soft light blue of the larkspurs and the 
shadowy purple of the heliotrope as revealed 
in the sky, and in the sea, glow with a soft 
radiance almost startling to behold. 

Tall flambuoyant hollyhocks in red, yellow, 
pink, and almost black, standing alone in one 
mass on a side hill and overlooking the gar- 
den below, is the one grand pageant of my 
garden. Under the hill in smaller quantities 
the pale pink, cream, and white hollyhocks 
are banked against a shrubbery bed of varied 
colored leaves, and in between are pale pink 
and lavender phloxes. They all seem so 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 95 

supremely content resting there in the soft 
sweet sunlight. 

Opposite and along the vine covered fence 
a hedge of spirea Von Houttei serves as a 
background for the lily bed. Here hundreds 
of bright red lilies create a gay and pleasing 
picture. Below and on the banks of the little 
bubbling stream the iris find their home and 
here a few shafts of silver foliage pierce the 
blue and lavender colorings of the iris. This 
is among the loveliest of the early June pic- 
tures. In whatever direction we choose to 
turn our steps this picture of June's loveliness 
awaits us. The soft clear shades of blue, vio- 
let, mauve, pink, and white of the iris, with 
its ever verdant foliage housed amicably with 
the blue forget-me-nots, descend in a veritable 
sheet of blue to the water's edge. Hardly 
more than a step above may be seen the straight 
and stately reeds of the cat-tails, on whose 
topmost pinnacle Mr. Blackbird sways and 
sings his merry little song to the sunbeams. 
And just on beyond in the softening twilight 



96 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

the silver stars of the fragrant white tobacco 
stand out as quiet signals of the night, and at 
their signs the shadows seems to part and 
close, then part again. They raise their pale 
heads with assured grace and flood the dusk 
with a sweetness at once delicate and intense. 

Somewhere I have read of a combination 
of gold yellow coreopsis bordered with scarlet 
salvia, or as suggested by this same ''someone" 
a mass of scarlet salvia bordered with a yel- 
low gold. I will wager this ''someone" decks 
himself in purple clothes and binds around 
his neck a scarlet tie. This intense coloring 
of red and yellow probably appeals tremend- 
ously to this flower-lover. He should have 
attended the flower battle in the garden of my 
dear old friend, when the scarlet salvia and 
stately magenta phlox drew swords, but, as I 
have previously stated, one's garden is his own 
individual spot of happiness. Therein of 
course lies its charm. Garden planning and 
color scheming are the most difficult phases 
of gardening upon which to give advice, since, 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 97 

to fulfill its destiny, each garden must reflect 
the ideal, the fancies, and fads of its possessor. 
The little fairyland of my garden is lying 
quietly and serenely on the south hillside. It 
is full of leaf and flower. The tall surround- 
ing fence is vine-covered. Masses of wild 
grape and sweet white clematis, the soft pur- 
ple flower of the trailing morning glory, rival- 
ing its sister flower the four o'clock, are grow- 
ing in clumps below. And the beds and bor- 
ders of this little garden? Why they are just 
full to overflowing with the sweetest old fash- 
ioned flowers. This is a garden where the lit- 
tle plants are just as important as the big ones. 
Here the tall bright tulips in all their dark 
red beauty are tripping hand in hand with the 
^'dancing daffodils." The long fragrant stocks 
of mignonette stand as guards over the dainty 
little many colored sunroses that edge the 
winding paths. Old sweet william is hobnob- 
bing with the stately white lilies. The dainty 
clove pinks in clumps by themselves are cast- 
ing shy glances at the gorgeous silk poppies 



98 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

just over the way. All of these flowers carry 
memories of the past. Perhaps the most ex- 
quisite moments in this little garden come in 
evening-time as one sits on the old rustic bench 
under the great spreading Linden tree, that 
for years has guarded this little garden, and 
shielded it from the cold north winds. 

The setting sun floods the garden with a 
radiant glow. There you sit and there you 
dream, until the sun sinks in the heavens and 
the spell is broken. 



CHAPTER XI 
My Garden 

'^Had I a garden, alleys green 

Should lead where none would guess, 

Save lovers to exchange unseen 
Shy whispers and caress/^ 

My garden is a place of winding walks, vine 
covered arches, secret arbors, shady paths, fre- 
quent surprises, and hidden beauties. The 
winding paths lure us on to charms unknown 
until they disappear in the glen below. 
Through this glen runs the rippling brook, 
and at the water's edge, banked with tall 
orange and red lilies, rests in peaceful solitude 
my ever famous Japanese tea house. 

During a sojourn in Japan I became, as do 
all Americans, desperately enamored of the 
dear little Japanese tea houses. On my return 



loo MY LITTLE GARDEN 

nothing would do but that I must have one. 
I carefully selected the tree on which to place 
it. I engaged my carpenter and after going 
over every detail we commenced our opera- 
tions. We cut the tree within, say, nine feet 
of the ground. On the top we built our roof 
umbrella shape. We worked hard, long, dili- 
gently and finally produced a roof quite in 
keeping with my every wish. We neatly 
thatched the top, ceiled the inside, and all in 
all it was quaint and attractive. We next 
built a seat around the tree and the family 
pronounced the undertaking quite a success. 
I was jubilant with my Japanese tea house. 
At the time I selected the tree but one thought 
was in my mind — that I was to have a tea 
house. After its completion I found it was a 
block away from any possible or presentable 
place to serve tea, but not daunted in the least 
by its remote situation, I continued to walk 
around it with a feeling of perfect success. 
Fall crept on and time for closing and moving 
into town was at hand. Many times during 




THE GLEN, THE FAIRY-LAND OF MY GARDEN 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN loi 

the winter the thought of my tea house came 
to my mind but with a strange feeling of 
What was it doing so far away? However, 
as no comment had been made, I continued to 
satisfy myself that it was quite right. Spring 
came bright and early that year and the coun- 
try with all of its little green bursting buds 
and singing of birds called me to come, so we 
moved earlier than was our custom. Each 
day I would wander down into the glen and 
inspect my newly acquired tea house. On the 
occasion of each visit I had a feeling of unrest, 
of disappointment. I felt like saying: What 
are you doing here? By the end of the first 
week, it was apparent that the tea house must 
go — ^must seek some congenial corner, some 
spot that meant something. It must, if pos- 
sible, be reached by a pretty little winding 
path. I sauntered up and down the stream. 
At last I came to a tall ash tree just at the 
water's edge, at which point the bubbling 
water dashing over a huge rock made a splash- 
ing rainbow waterfall. Just here the golden 



I02 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

barked dogwood had spread its branches in a 
tangled mass across the stream and the young 
vines of the Virginia creeper had twined them- 
selves in and out to form a canopy over the 
waterfall. This was the bathing spot of the 
bird family. Here Mr. Scarlet Tanager 
dipped and preened his brilliant plumage to 
make ready for some new conquest. Have 
you ever watched this fickle little bird when 
he is in a deep flirtation with Mrs. Goldfinch 
or Miss Vireo? Oh, he is a wicked little gay- 
ly plumed Knight, quite the Beau Brummel 
of the bird family. The robins, the blue-birds 
(dear little harbingers of Spring), the song 
sparrow and ever brilliant Mr. Blue Jay 
reveled in this waterfall in the bright sun- 
shine. Down under the willows the sun- 
kissed cowslips poke their tiny heads out of 
the sand almost as soon as the snow is gone. 
Nestling deep in the rich, black leafmold at 
the foot of the linden tree a huge group of soft, 
lavender pink, moccasin flowers make their 
home. The fragrant breeze, as it comes fresh 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 103 

from the caress of the white lily bed, awakens 
a world of tender memories. In a moment 
it lifts the veil of years while one lives again 
the dreams of happy days. A magic door 
closes upon the world of work and strife. Ev- 
erywhere is peace. The rustling of the leaves, 
the soft sighing of the wind, the gentle flutter 
of some petal as it falls from a full blown 
flower fills you with a contentment beyond 
words to express. In such a spot one can 
dream dreams, weave fancies, and revive sweet 
memories. It ihelps one to live again the 
summers that are past. So, then, in this spot 
must my tea house reside. 

Once more I engaged my carpenter and 
made ready for a grand moving procession. 
We cut the top off the ash tree in readiness 
for the roof. Four husky men were comman- 
deered to help lift it into place. Just as I 
thought it was safely landed, it cracked, 
slipped and fell flat on the ground. Oh! why 
had I traveled in Japan? Meanwhile, my 
four husky men were endeavoring to right the 



I04 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

floundering thing, but, owing to its size, four 
men were insufficient to cope with it. Ac- 
cordingly I enlisted the services of three more 
stalwart chaps. The seven, puffing and snort- 
ing like young sea lions, at last succeeded in 
hitting the topmost pinnacle of the tree; it 
shivered and shook and wavered a bit, but 
good luck and a dexterous young carpenter 
won the day and it was quickly nailed and se- 
curely anchored. We built a floor and 
screened it round, making a most complete 
and, I now frankly admit, artistic, garden tea 
house. 

I had very accurately planned to enter the 
tea house only by crossing the little stream on 
what I thought to be attractive stepping stones. 
To do this the tea house was supported by two 
low cement pillars set in midstream. When 
the pillars were complete and the cement soft, 
I spent an entire day doing, as I told my little 
sister, fancy inlay and rococo-work. I gath- 
ered dozens of bright-colored stones and peb- 
bles from the bed of the creek and carefully 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 105 

pressed them into the soft cement, thus pro- 
ducing a really attractive bit of underpinning. 
The tea house now became a popular objec- 
tive for members of the family — which proves 
again that success brings popularity. My 
dear old gardener worked faithfully in plant- 
ing a four-foot border of red and orange June 
lilies around one entire side. On the other 
he planted dainty bits of maiden hair fern, 
together with the blue-eyed soft purple violet, 
chaperoned by the tall pink and yellow iris. 
The task was finished. I had built success 
out of the foundation stone of disappointment. 
I served my first tea to the gardener, his as- 
sistants, and my carpenter. The smile of hap- 
piness that radiated their sunburnt faces 
caused a feeling of serene contentment within 
my soul. I was glad after all I had traveled 
in Japan. 

The day had been close and sultry. As 
night came on heavy clouds banked the wes- 
tern sky. Faint, gentle breezes sent tremors 



io6 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

through the leaves of the trees, and drifted 
away over the hilltops beyond. The song of 
a robin or the silver strain of a v^ood thrush 
was wafted through the air. The pale gold 
moon, breaking through the fleeting clouds, 
sent silver streaks of moonbeams through the 
branches of the old linden tree, to kiss the 
dew drops on the lily pads below. All was 
still. Night had unfolded her silken velvet 
robe and spread it softly over the sleeping 
world. 

I was suddenly awakened by terrific light- 
ning and thunder that seemed to shake the very 
earth. The storm broke in all its fury. The 
rain came in sheets. The swaying and creak- 
ing of the branches of the trees and the rush 
and roar of the wind were almost deafening in 
their fierceness. The entire family, parading 
in pajamas, with candles, made a weird pic- 
ture, like so many ghosts that accompany. 
Such storms! I so revel in a storm that 
fear and I are strangers, but the rush of the 
water in the stream below filled me with a 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 107 

sense of alarm. In the glare of the lightning 
I could see the glen flooded to the proportions 
of a good sized lake. For almost two hours 
the storm continued. Dawn at length broke 
quietly and peacefully, and the bright, sweet 
sunlight warmed the earth, quite oblivious of 
the night before. 

O, Nature/ With what majestic power 
Dost thou command thy world! 

I arose early, pulled on my rubber boots, 
jumped into my raincoat, and flew for the 
glen. Alas ! My tea house was in close com- 
munion with the sandy bed of the bubbling 
stream. Not content with rolling over once, 
it had turned a double somersault and landed 
flat on the other side of the stream with its face 
buried deep in the sand. My wonderful- 
ly inlaid rococo pillars were probably ten 
miles down the great Mississippi, fastening 
themselves as barnacles on the bottom of some 
belated steamboat. 

The lilies so carefully planted had followed 



io8 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

the procession. They, too, had gone over the 
falls into the river below and, perchance, the 
long slender leaves of the lily plants were 
woven into an emerald barge as a home for the 
water nymphs. 

Despair filled my heart. As a garden dec- 
orator I did not seem destined to be a success. 
My mother had told me many times that as a 
child my days were all laughter and sunshine. 
I had always greeted her with a smile, never 
cried when to laugh seemed best. This 
thought came to my mind as I disconsolately 
sat on a rock. Suddenly I burst into peals of 
laughter. It all struck me as the funniest 
thing that had happened yet. My garden 
experiences had not only been funny and dis- 
appointing, but were verging on the point of 
financial distress. 

However, the tea house was restored to its 
foundation and securely anchored. And at 
this moment I am sitting here in the little 
house where it rests closely hugging the hill- 
side that has shielded it from wind and storm. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 109 

Here the spirit of peace finds rest and in her 
train come happy memories, chasing away the 
trials, crowding out the troubles that beset the 
daylight hours. Twilight falls like some 
magic veil thrown from the lap of the gods; 
it shrouds the builder's details while bringing 
into fresh life the beauty of the whole. 

A month rolled by. My enthusiasm for 
garden beautifying was at its height. I want- 
ed to originate, to produce. I wanted pretty 
winding paths, quaint old rustic seats thought- 
fully placed beneath the spreading linden 
trees, where one could sit and watch the setting 
sun as it flooded the garden with a radiant 
glow. I wanted rustic bridges spanning the 
sparkling little stream, moonlight waterfalls 
that sparkled and shown when the pale moon 
shed its silver beams. I wanted vine covered 
arbors where one could sit and listen to the 
singing of the birds and watch the mamma 
birds teaching the baby birds the ways of life 
and song. All this mad desire for construc- 
tion burned within me until I fell victim to 



no MY LITTLE GARDEN 

bridge building. My knowledge of rustic 
bridge building at the outset was negligible. 
However, it is well to be philosophic even in 
the face of disappointment, so I plunged 
ahead. In the fartherest end of the glen the 
hillside was a steep, rolling incline. At this 
point the little winding, graveled path was 
constantly washing away, necessitating imme- 
diate repair after every hard rain storm. I 
had pictured to myself a prettily curving, 
smoothly laid cement walk about eighteen 
inches wide trailing over this hillside to the 
stream below where it should be met by a 
most attractive rustic foot bridge. Either 
side of the walk I had hoped to plant deep 
with forget-me-nots. Joyful visions of bud- 
ding growth and shoots yielding up their blos- 
soms thronged in upon me. It all looked like 
some delightful picture book; the turning of 
the first page is the most entrancing since all 
the others lie hidden. 

So I gathered together my forces and set to 
work. My gardener assured me he could 







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HILLSIDE WITH GRAVEL PATH 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN iir 

easily do the work if "Mrs." would lay the 
plans. We decided on silver birch for our 
material and spent a number of days selecting 
the pieces, so as to make our bridge as artistic 
and attractive as possible. I struggled and 
worked with plans which grew more and more 
complicated. My final decision was to throw 
away my plans and build as I went. The 
week I spent at my first bridge building was 
the happiest of my entire garden experience. 
Everything was all so novel, so thoroughly 
engaging. The hours flew by like moments. 
Even meal time would have passed unnoticed 
had not my dear old gardener advised me it 
was ^^time to eat." An entire week was con- 
sumed. At the end of that time we had pro- 
duced something, to me at least so wonderful 
that I could not quite understand just how we 
did it. When I first suggested to the house- 
hold that I was contemplating bridge build- 
ing they all wore an expression which plainly 
said, "more trouble." This only caused me 
to say to myself, "If I can't build a bridge, why 



112 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

can't I?" So in order to find the answer I 
decided to build it. 

After its completion I was so absolutely 
thrilled with my success that I dashed into the 
laying of a cement walk with all the nonchal- 
ance of a veteran of sand and lime. But here 
I received an awful bump. My gardener 
knew nothing of walk-making nor mixing of 
cement nor the thousand other little details 
that went with it. No more did L My idea 
of a cement walk was simply to mix the cement 
and lay it in the path on the ground and smooth 
ofif the sides. I had in my employ that sum- 
mer a young German, as chauffeur, who as he 
said had at one time been a high "Mucky 
Muck" in the cement world but had given up 
his trade for the more elevating and lucrative 
position of chaufifeur. I immediately engaged 
him in conversation only to learn that in order 
to make our walk he would have to lay forms 
made of lumber in which to put the cement. 
After filling my head full of his superior 
knowledge as to cement work, I gave my or- 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 113 

ders for lumber, sand, and cement according 
to his dictation. I was to draw the line of 
march, as it were, down the hillside in and 
out in symetrically curved lines until I met the 
bridge at the stream below. Oh! the joy and 
feverish excitement of this, my first real ce- 
ment work. The delight of a garden is found 
not so much in the work done, as in the work 
doing. A true garden lover is always dream- 
ing dreams, building castles in the air, dream- 
castles that will lose none of their glamor 
even though they may never materialize, and 
so it was with me. About this little walk and 
bridge I drew visions of creeping vines half 
screening the nests of tiny birds, of stately 
blue and pink iris nestling at the water's edge, 
of masses of forget-me-nots as blue as the blue 
of the heavens above. And so I worked on 
with the exquisite delight of perfect content- 
ment. 

We graded here, filled in there, we meas- 
ured and sifted and hoed and raked, until I felt 
the responsibilities of the producers of the 



114 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

great Woolworth or Singer buildings, and the 
wonderful knowledge that was forthcoming 
from the stupendous brain of the high "Mucky 
Muck of the cement world" would fill more 
than a wee, wistful, garden book. Our work 
was completed late one lovely summer after- 
noon and I felt distressed at the refusal of the 
'^Boss," as it were, to cover it with boards or 
burlap, as I had seen street curbing done, but 
his reply was, "In such a remote part of the 
grounds nothing would mar it and 'twas much 
better to leave it uncovered so as to dry out 
more quickly," and as he was the "Authority" 
and I only a lowly helper I refrained from 
further suggesion. That night I retired on 
my laurels, weary in body I can assure you, 
but with a perfect happiness of success. Early 
next morning even before having my coffee I 
ran up to the glen to be sure everything was 
just as we left it the night before. How well 
I remember that morning! I can even now 
see the dewdrops as they sparkled on the mil- 
lion blades of grass. I stopped short on my 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 115 

approach to the little walk. Little dogs, big 
dogs, lady dogs, and gentleman dogs, yes, they 
all had been there. Perhaps because of its 
being in the remotest part of the grounds they 
had chosen it for their moonlight rendezvous 
and had made my cement walk a Midway 
Plaisance. Their little foot prints were in- 
ches deep and even a bird or two had drifted 
in to make the maze more complicated. Oh! 
my grief at that moment! I can feel it now. 
I returned by the way of the garage where I 
lingered only long enough to tell ''Mr. High 
Mucky-Muck" that because of his superior 
knowledge he would have the exquisite pleas- 
ure of resurfacing the walk and to lose no time 
in so doing. There w^as a still quiet in the 
atmosphere that morning that caused a feeling 
of unrest within me; a terribly depressing 
humidity. I decided the climatic conditions 
had got together and were gossiping about my 
new bridge. I remarked to my gardener I 
was fearful of a bad storm, to all of which he 
frankly agreed. Even at that moment the 



ii6 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

silver leaves on the poplar trees were com- 
mencing to dance their weird little dance as 
the wind took them unawares. A half fright- 
ened robin flew by us in haste to its little ones 
alone in their nest in the top of the old apple 
tree. The storm was upon us almost before 
we could reach a place of shelter. The dark- 
ness was so intense candles were resorted to. 
It was perhaps the most terrifying wind and 
rain storm I have ever known. In less than 
thirty minutes the most horrible devastation 
had taken place. I remember only once of 
thinking or looking toward my bridge, at 
which time I seemed to see a piece of silver 
birch flying through the air. The entire 
household was in a panic of fear. I hope I 
may never again witness anything so stupend- 
ously frightful. The loss of life that followed 
in the wake of this giant of rain and wind was 
terrific. The sorrows and misfortunes of peo- 
ple who were caught unawares depressed me 
so completely that it was two or three days 
before I realized my own loss. Of course 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 117 

there were only pieces of my beautiful bridge 
and remnants of cement and sand lying on the 
hillside, but. you know the little verse, 'Tf at 
first you don't succeed — " Well, I tried 
again. This time I securely anchored my 
bridge and though it has been water-soaked 
and wind-tried it still remains intact. At 
times it had seemed to me that in planning 
and constructing my garden my disappoint- 
ments were more than average. Still it may 
be that these very disappointments in the end 
brought me the greatest happiness, and aided 
me in developing the culture of flowers. 

And thus I turn the last page of my wee, 
wistful garden book. When one is seized 
with a spirit of unrest as incomprehensible as 
its origin is obscure, then is the time to wander 
in among your flowers with the blue canopy 
of heaven above and the fresh black dirt be- 
neath your feet. The red silken poppies peep 
out and smile at you and the sunshine filters 
through the treetops. Daylight fades, flushed 



ii8 MY LITTLE GARDEN 

rose and red and gold, by the borrowed radi- 
ance of the sun-stained clouds. The garden 
glows with the mystic light of the dying day. 
Surely this is the gardener's supreme hour. 
The fragrance of the night-scented stocks and 
white tobacco steals o'er the still air, full and 
fresh and sweet wafted from the wedding bou- 
quet of Night and Twilight. 

The world is hushed and only the breeze in 
the trees above chants a lullaby to the dream- 
ing flowers. 

''Good-night, little garden, sweet may thy 

slumbers be! 
I leave thee to the tender care, 
Of the still earth and brooding air 
As when the mother from her breast 
Lays the sleeping child to rest. 
And shades its eyes and waits to see 
How sweet its waking smile will be/' 



ANNUALS AND PERENNIALS 

Following is a list of annuals and perennials, giving date 
of flowering, average height, color, length of bloom, and 
hardiness. 

h. a. — meaning hardy annual. 

h. p. — meaning hardy perennial. 

h. h. a. — meaning half hardy annual 

h. h. p. — meaning half hardy perennial. 



Annuals and Perennials 


ist flow- 


Average 


Color 


Bloom 


Hard- 




ering 


Height 






iness 


Achillea Pearl 


June 15 


2 ft. 


White 


Until frost 


h. p. 


Ageratum 


July 15 


ift. 


Blue 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Balsam 


July 15 


2 ft. 


Various 


6 weeks 


h. a. 


Corn flowers 


June 15 


2 ft. 


Various 


8 weeks 


h. a. 


Candytuft 


July 15 


I ft. 


Various 


6 weeks 


h. a. 


Clove Pinks 


June I 


10 in. 


White, pink 


4 weeks 


h. p. 


Cosmos, early 


July 15 


4 ft. 


V/hite, pink, red 


8 weeks 


h. a. 


Cosmos, late 


Aug. 15 


4 ft. 


White, pink, red 


6 weeks 


h. a. 


Coreopsis, lanceolate 












grande flora 


July I 


21/2 it. 


Yellow 


Until frost 


h. p. 


Dahlia 


July 15 


4 ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


tender 


Daisy, yellow, Dimor- 












photheca Auraitiaca 


July 15 


I ft. 


Bright yellow 


Until frost 


h. h. a. 


Dianthus Pinks 


June 15 


I ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. h. p. 


Delphinium 


July 15 


3 ft. 


Blue, white, etc. 


Until frost 


h. p. 


Forget-me-not 


June I 


8 in. 


Blue 


4 weeks 


h. p. 


Feverfew, double 


July I 


i^ft. 


White 


lo weeks 


h. h. p. 


Gaillardia 


July I 


2 ft. 


Yellow, red 


Until frost 


h. p. 



I20 



MY LITTLE GARDEN 



Annuals and Perennials 


ist flow- 


Average 
Height 


Color 


Bloom 


Hard- 




ering 






iness 


Gladiolus bulb 


Aug. I 


iVzh. 


Various 


4 weeks 


tender 


Golden Glow 


Aug. 15 


6 ft. 


Yellow 


4 weeks 


h. p. 


Hollyhocks 


July 15 


5 ft. 


Various 


3 weeks 


h. p. 


Iris, Japanese 


July 10 


2 to 3 ft. 


Various 


3 weeks 


h. p. 


Iris, German 


May 15 


2 ft. 


Various 


3 weeks 


h. p. 


Larkspur 


July 15 


I^ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Love-in-the-Mist 


Aug. I 


I ft. 


Blue 


6 weeks 


h. a. 


Marigold 


Sept. 15 


2 to 4 ft 


Yellow 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Nasturtium 


July I 


Climbine 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Nicotina affinis 


July 15 


3 ft. 


White 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Petunias, fringed 


June 15 


I ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Petunias, common 


June 15 


I ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Poppies, annual 


July 10 


1/2 ft. 


Various 


2 weeks 


h. a. 


Poppy, California 


July I 


I ft. 


Yellow, etc. 


8 weeks 


h. a. 


Peonies 


June 10 


3 ft. 


Various 


3 weeks 


h. p. 


Phlox Drummondi 


July 12 


I ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Portulaca 


July 15 


6 in. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Roses 


June I 


I to 6 ft. 


Various 


4 weeks 


h. p. 


Salpiglosis 


July 15 


ift. 


Various 


6 weeks 


h. h. a. 


Shasta Daisy 


July I 


i^ft. 


White 


4 weeks 


h. p. 


Snapdragon 


June 15 


iK^ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. h. p. 


Stock 


July 10 


I'Ait. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. h. a. 


Stokesia cyenea 


July I 


2 it. 


Blue 


10 weeks 


h. p. 


Sweet Alyssum 


July I 


6 in. 


White 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Sweet William 


June 12 


i^ft. 


Various 


4 weeks 


h. p. 


Sweet Peas 


June 15 


5 ft. 


Various 


10 weeks 


h. a. 


Sweet Sultan 


June 15 


2 ft. 


Various 


8 weeks 


h. a. 


Verbena 


July 15 


I ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 


Zinnia 


July 15 


2 ft. 


Various 


Until frost 


h. a. 



I am giving below a list of hardiest, best known species 
of peonies, phlox, and tulips, for this climate : 



PEONIES 

Festiva Maxinia — white, red center. 
Due de Wellington — white. 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 121 

Felix Crousse — red. 

Louis Van Houtte — red. 

Modeste — pink. 

L'Esperance — red. 

Prince de Felindyke — dark purple. 

PERENNIAL PHLOX 

Coquilizot — coral, red, dark red center. 

Champignot — bright rose. 

Esias Tegner — deep rose. 

Miss Lingard — pure white. 

Obergart Witteg — magenta with crimson eye. 

Pantheon — pink rose. 

R. B. Struthers — bright pink, salmon. 

Sceleton — white, red eye. 

TULIPS 

Any of the Darwin Tulips you will find desirable, re- 
quiring perhaps less care than any other. 
Pride of Harlam — red and very desirable. 
Gretchen — pink, very good. 

In ordering your tulips you should not neglect to get 
a few Jessneriana. 

The advantage of the Darwin tulips is that they remain 
with you longer than the common tulips. They do not 
degenerate as quickly. In fact, many nurserymen claim 
they are the only group of tulips that will successfully 
endure this climate. 



GARDEN PESTS AND REMEDIES 

The insect pests which afflict plants at times are most 
troublesome and annoying. Plants seemingly affected 
with disease may be sprayed weekly with Bordeaux mix- 
ture and arsenate of lead combined, or alternate Bordeaux 
with tobacco. If they do not improve dig them up, look 
for worms, cleanse the roots with a weak solution of Bor- 
deaux and reset in the fresh earth with Bordeaux dug in 
about the crown. Bordeaux mixture is not strictly an 
insecticide but most insects avoid it. Tobacco is one of 
the most useful garden remedies. When it is not suffi- 
ciently efficacious combine it with soap. 

Keresene emulsion (or else whale-oil), Bordeaux mix- 
ture, tobacco, and arsenate of lead, are sufficient for most 
gardens. Some gardens do not need any treatment. 

PROPORTIONS OF APPLICATIONS 

Kerosene emulsion — Summer application for shrubs, 
one part to fifteen parts pater, i.e., one pint of the emul- 
sion to two gallons of w^ater. 

Whale oil, soap, and tobacco — Use decoction of two 
ounces of whale oil soap and one pound of ground to- 



YOUR LITTLE GARDEN 123 

bacco in two gallons of boiling water, cooled before used 
on summer plants. 

Bordeaux dry — Can be dusted on wet leaves or dug 
in about the crown of the plant. 

Bordeaux mixture powdered — Four ounces of Bor- 
deaux powder in two gallons of water. 

Tobacco decoction — One pound ground tobacco steep- 
ed m one gallon hot water, cooled and sprayed on. Be 
careful not to inhale the spray. 

Tobacco powder — Is sometimes dusted on plants, and 
when dug in about the roots of trees or plants affected 
with root lice it is beneficial ; it also acts as a fertilizer. 

Bordeaux mixture and arsenate of lead — One pound 
arsenate of lead to twenty- five gallons of diluted Bor- 
deaux mixture, or for a small quantity mix four ounces 
of Bordeaux powder in two gallons of water to which add 
three drams of arsenate of lead. 



CUT WORMS AND WIRE WORMS 

Signs of cut worms may be detected when the plant 
withers and topples over and is partly cut in two just 
below the surface. Find a worm about one-half inch 
under the soil, probably near the injured stalk, and kill it. 
Place around the plant fine coal ashes slightly dug under 
the soil, not touching the plant, or place paper collars or 
thin shingles around the base of the stem, two inches un- 
der and one inch above the ground. For a bait to destroy 
the cut worm use fresh clover dipped in arsenate and 
syrup, and cover over with an inch of soil, or mix bran 
with paris green and molasses into a paste thin enough 
to be sprinkled over the ground among the plants. 



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